Operation Christmas Child is a project of Samaritan’s Purse.
It is a hands-on way for people to bless children in need across the world by filling shoeboxes with toys, hygiene items, school supplies, and fun gifts.
Joanne Tailby, Boggabri’s coordinator, has been purchasing small gifts and encouraging her friends and family to do the same during the past 12 months to enable her to pack her Operation Christmas Child boxes.
Mrs Tailby explained that it is easy to become involved.
“You don’t have to be part of the church.
“All you need is a caring heart and the willingness to fill a shoe box with items from the suggested list and pay for the postage.
“It is not a big expense especially if you buy little things all year round and when they are on special.
“Some people fill five or six boxes, others fill one but it all helps and makes a difference to a child at Christmas,” she said.
Operation Christmas Child has been running since 1993, and during that time more than 220 million children living in poverty, in more than 170 countries have received a gift-filled shoebox.
It is not a situation where each year the child receives a box, a child will only ever receive one gift in their lifetime from Operation Christmas Child.
Mrs Tailby and her sister Wendy Hatch have already filled numerous boxes in the past few weeks, and recently Mrs Tailby enlisted the help of the Boggabri Sacred Heart students to help her fill another 12 boxes.
Students chose to pack for a boy or a girl between the ages of two and 14 years.
Items such as a book, pencil case filled with pencils, eraser, pencil sharpener, notebook, a cake of soap, a toothbrush, comb, hairbrush, hair ties, a fun toy, skipping ropes, card games, hats, library bags, t-shirt, shorts, bouncy balls or a soft toy.
