With school starting just around the corner, Santa Monicans are starting to shop for supplies, but not just for themselves. They’re stocking up on pens, papers, and a bunch of toys and other gifts to stuff their shoe boxes to give to Operation Christmas Child. The project is an International effort by Samaritan’s Purse to send gifts to children whose lives have been disrupted by natural disasters, disease, war, terrorism, famine or poverty.
Started in 1993, the project has been sending gifts to more than 86 million children in over 130 countries. In 2010, the West Coast region alone packed 397,189 shoe boxes. In 2011, gifts will reach an estimated 8.5 million children.
In Santa Monica, and all throughout the nation, people are preparing and buying supplies because back-to-school sales offer a great opportunity to purchase lots of these so called “box-stuffers”.
For most children in Santa Monica, school supplies are a given, but many kids around the world are not as privileged; for some of these kids in third world countries, receiving papers and pencils would be a blessing. “There are a lot of things you take for granted: even little things, like little toys and candies…. It’s not a privilege for [the children who receive gifts] and it means a lot to them,” Kaitlin Lavelle said, a Santa Monica resident and a junior at the Lighthouse Christian Academy. She helped contribute to the 50 boxes donated by the Santa Monica school last year. The treats, says Lavelle, include small items, such as pens, paper, notebooks, candies and little toys like a yo-yo. Every one of these volunteers design and fills a box that specified with an age and gender, so that the gifts the receiver will get would be appropriate for him / her.
A lot of Santa Monica residents consider Operation Christmas Child as an annual family event and look forward to doing it every year. Families shop around for gifts whenever they can, and pack them along the way. It’s kind of a great bonding experience for the family, and the children are excited to pick up the gifts that they are about to stuff in the boxes.
As implied by the name of the project, its purpose is to spread “the joy of Christmas”, since Samaritan’s Purse is a Christian ministry. However, these gifts are sent to villages and neighborhoods where all children are invited, regardless of their religion.
The nearest drop-off area is Calvary Chapel South Bay on 19300 Vermont Ave., in Gardena, Calif.
Boxes are accepted all year long at any location, but the National Collection Week is Nov. 14-21. For more information on Operation Christmas Child, visit www.samaritanspurse.org.
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