Hundreds of Newton and Grinnell area kids, families and volunteers will come together to fill empty shoe boxes with gifts of toys, school supplies, hygiene items and notes of encouragement.
During National Collection Week, Nov. 16-23, Samaritan’s Purse will collect the gift-filled shoe boxes at more than 3,500 drop-off sites in all 50 states and Puerto Rico.
A public kick-off event will be from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday at the Newton Public Library, 100 N. Third Ave.
Since 1993, the Samaritan‘s Purse project, Operation Christmas Child, has collected and delivered more than 124 Million gift-filled shoe boxes to children in more than 150 countries.
The New Hope Assembly of God collection center in Urbandale is one of several locations where donors can drop off shoe boxes packed with toys, school supplies and necessity items. This local collection point will serve as the shoe box gift’s first stop on a journey around the world to a child in need.
To find the drop-off location nearest you, log-on to: www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/OCC/Drop_Off_locations and enter your zip code. You will get a list of locations within a specified radius and the hours of operation to best fit your schedule.
After the shoe box gifts are collected Nov. 16-23, they are sent to be processed and prepared for hand-delivery to children worldwide using whatever means necessary — sea containers, trucks, trains, airplanes, helicopters, boats, elephants and dog sleds.