Nearly 1,600 shoeboxes donated for Operation Christmas Child

Dozens of cardboard boxes filled with dozens more of shoeboxes were ready to ship out following the completion of the Operation Christmas Child project on Monday.

The project, which ran from Nov. 16 through Monday, gathered shoeboxes full of items to give to children in need around the world.

This year, organizer Linda Laverman estimated the local donation totaled more than 950 shoeboxes. In conjunction with the Poweshiek County organization, almost 1,600 shoeboxes were donated to be shipped all over the world.

“The two locations did about 1,400 shoeboxes last year and it looks like we are going to be close to 1,600 shoeboxes this year,” organizer Tim Whaley said.

Although it was an increase of almost 200 shoeboxes, Whaley said the nice weather can often hamper efforts to get into the holiday spirit.

“I think what happens is, we’ve had two years where it has been really nice throughout November, and I don’t care that the retail stores put their Christmas lights out, you get the first snow and it is like, oh it is Christmas,” Whaley said. “I like the nice weather, but I think it slows people down doing projects like this.”

After the shoeboxes leave Newton, they will travel to Des Moines before heading to Minneapolis where they will land at the regional distribution center. There they will be sorted and categorized to be shipped to more than 140 locations around the globe.

“Once they process them in Minneapolis they will start going out as quickly as possible. Those that are going nearby and to friendly countries, Mexico and down through South America, could have them before Christmas. There are also countries that, despite having done it year after year for almost 14 years, going through customs can be a pain. It can take anywhere from 30 days to three months for them to get through customs,” Whaley said.

Donations from this area will go to Barbados, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Honduras, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania and Trinidad and Tobago this year. Also, now using special tracking technology, participants can follow their box to discover where their gift is delivered by using the donation form found on their website.

“We will know by March or April exactly where they went because of the tracking number they have on them,” Whaley said. “It is kind of neat.”

Whaley said once the children receive the shoeboxes, which can be filled with items such as toys, balls, stuffed animals, school supplies and hygiene items, along with the story of Jesus in the appropriate language. Often times the study materials are taken and used as school curriculum.

“Some of the countries are so starved for school material that they would use that as their curriculum,” Whaley said.

Operation Christmas Child is a project started in 1993 by Samaritan’s Purse, an international Christian relief and evangelism organization. To date, more than 124 million children have received shoeboxes through the organization.