Residents from the Becker and Clearwater areas have been busy filling shoeboxes with gifts and messages of hope the past two weeks as they took part in Operation Christmas Child. The program is sponsored by Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian-based organization whose goal is to share the gospel and help people in need around the world. 

 

Shoeboxes are filled with toys, hygiene items and school supplies and shipped to children around the world. Many of these children have had to overcome the effects of poverty, disease, famine or war, and the shoeboxes bring joy and hope to those who receive them.

 

Local box packing began in earnest Nov. 14 as youth and their leaders from Rejoice Lutheran Church in Clearwater packed 69 boxes as well as making six tie blankets for the Wright Co. Crisis Nursery. Along with the gifts, each shoebox also included a handwritten message of hope.

 

Youth at Rejoice have participated in Operation Christmas Child for a number of years. Congregation members donate shoeboxes, supplies and money in the weeks leading up to the project. Students then pick out the gifts to pack the boxes with. 

 

The next wave of packing took place in Becker last Saturday evening, as 11 youth and adults gathered at Oakwood Community Church to pack 151 boxes in just under two hours. 

 

Becky Morgan, who has organized the event for the past eight years, suggests different items each month throughout the year for the congregation to donate.

 

“Hygiene items are a huge deal,” she said. “Some of the kids receiving the boxes bathe in lakes and streams, so Ivory soap is the best because it floats. Pencil sharpeners and school supplies are also in high demand. Some kids can’t attend school if they don’t have a pencil.”

 

For toys Morgan likes to recommend people donate snuggle items.

 

“We try to bring forth God’s love with the toys,” she explained. “We want them to know someone out there truly loves them.”

 

As a designated local drop-off point, Oakwood collected an additional 253 boxes from the community.

 

Sunday saw yet another day of packing, with the Friedman family and friends leading the way at Becker Baptist Church with an astounding 1,103 boxes.

 

Adair Friedman grew up packing shoeboxes with her family each year. Excited after filling 37 boxes with her cousins in 2014 she decided she wanted to do more, and the number packed has grown exponentially every year since.

 

She and her family collect items for the shoeboxes throughout the year, receiving donations from both individuals and businesses like Becker Screen Print and Embroidery, which donates clothing items, and McDonald’s in Becker and Big Lake, which donate Happy Meal toys.

 

The family also crafts handmade items to fill the boxes with. This year, for example, they made jump ropes out of old t-shirts.

 

“I’m a college freshman at Bemidji so my younger siblings really stepped up this year,” said Friedman, who has been the main organizer in her family for the project for a number of years. “Especially my sister Alyssa.”

 

All the area shoeboxes that have been filled will be brought to a processing center in Minneapolis and then shipped to children around the world.

For more information on Operation Christmas Child, visit samaritanspurse.org.