Kansas City Joins Global Effort To Send 8 Million Shoe Box Gifts To Hurting Children

Sept. 20, 2010 - PRLog -- WHAT:   Kansas City kids, families and volunteers host a celebration to kick off the expected 52,000 shoe box gifts to be collected from Kansas City residents for hurting children worldwide.

   For thousands of shoe boxes—filled with toys, school supplies and necessity items—this will be the first stop on their journey.  The shoe boxes are then hand-delivered to hurting children around the world using whatever means necessary—sea containers, trucks, trains, airplanes, helicopters, boats, elephants, even dog sleds.
   
   Many of those shoe boxes have been packed by Mary Damron,a national spokesperson who has packed literally hundreds of thousands of boxes since 1994. Damron has packed boxes with former President Clinton and was named to a presidential council on volunteer efforts. She has spoken on behalf of Operation Christmas Child in 42 states and distributed gifts 18 times.
   
WHEN:    Sep. 24, 7 p.m.

WHERE:            Emmanuel Baptist Church
10100 Metcalf Ave.
Shawnee Mission, KS 66212

COVERAGE OPPORTUNITIES INCLUDE:

   Interviews—Mary Damron, a pioneer of Operation Christmas Child who has learned the gift of giving; volunteers who are putting the finishing touches on shoe box gifts; project organizers who have traveled the world delivering shoe box gifts to needy children.

Operation Christmas Child, a project of international Christian relief and evangelism organization Samaritan’s Purse, headed by Franklin Graham, is the world’s largest Christmas project.  Since 1993, the project has hand-delivered more than 77 million shoe box gifts to needy children in more than 130 countries.

Samaritan's Purse uses tracking technology that allows donors to "follow your box" to the destination country where it will be hand-delivered to a child in need.  Using the EZ Give donation form found at www.samaritanspurse.org, families can register their boxes and find out where in the world their boxes brought joy to children.

For more information on how to participate in Operation Christmas Child, call (913) 831-4466 or visit www.samaritanspurse.org.  National Collection Week for gift-filled shoe boxes is Nov. 15-22; however, shoe box gifts are collected all year at the Samaritan’s Purse headquarters in Boone, N.C.

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A project of internation relief organization Samaritan's Purse, Operation Christmas Child will hand-deliver some 8 million shoe box gifts to hurting children in more than 100 countries this year. It is literally the world's largest Christmas project.