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Friday, November 21, 2008

Operation Christmas Child

There is a special cause close to my heart that I would like to share. It is called Operation Christmas Child, and it is run by an organization called Samaritan's Purse (Billy Graham's son Franklin is the President/CEO). Each Christmas, they send shoe boxes full of toys and health care items to children in impoverished parts of the world.

From their Website:
"Operation Christmas Child brings joy and hope to children in desperate situations around the world through gift-filled shoe boxes and the Good News of God’s love. Since 1993, more than 61 million shoe boxes have been packed, shipped, and delivered across the globe. People of all ages can be involved in this simple, hands-on missions project while focusing on the true meaning of Christmas—Jesus Christ."

Last year, I had a lot of fun shopping for a 5-9 year old girl and picking out all sorts of goodies to send her way...toys and snacks she could share with her friends, stationery she could treasure as her own, health care products to make her life a little easier or safer. I really looked forward to doing it again this year. I found that it was such an easy, tangible way to give during Thanksgiving.


(Photo from the OCC Website.)

So it's National Collection Week now, and all boxes are due by November 24th. To get involved, first read the shopping/packing instructions, then enter your zip code to find the box drop-off location closest to you (you don't have to ship it to some faraway land yourself!). I would love for everyone to consider putting together at least one box for a kid who could really use an encouragement this Christmas. You might even have enough new things sitting around the house to donate...unopened Happy Meal toys, bars of soap or tubes of toothpaste, a full sheet of stickers. You could even include a bunch of things you got free at CVS using ECBs, like I'll be doing ;)

And while you're in the spirit of giving... (hehe)
Hello to everyone in the Northeast who shops at ShopRite, and a special "Congrats!" to those of you who have already qualified for your free Thanksgiving turkey. We, unfortunately, do not fit that category - the one irony in using so many coupons is that we haven't spent enough money!

SOOOO, to anyone who has already qualified, or to anyone who is not trying, please SPREAD THE LOVE and use our PricePlus number the next time you go shopping at ShopRite. Just leave a comment and I'll e-mail you back with our PricePlus number - cashiers can manually type it in and this is completely legitimate. Thanks in advance!

2 comments :

Anonymous said...

this is one of my favorites, I first heard about it at my aunt's church (not far from you) I'm sick of the angel trees, after working at a shelter I found out it was the shelter employees who filled out the cards and I always thought I was carefully shopping for one person, but no.

This is such a better deal, even if we have to drive 30 minutes to drop off our boxes.

hey naptime.

Melissa said...

Our box is all packed up, ready to be dropped off this Sunday!