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Operation Christmas Child, a project that encourages children, families, churches and other groups to fill empty shoeboxes with gifts, toys, school supplies, personal notes and necessity items, and then ships them to children in need around the world, will be accepting donations through Monday, Nov. 24.
The collection site for San Jose is the Foxworthy Baptist Church, 1774 Foxworthy Ave. The church will open its doors Thursday and Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 69 p.m.; Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m.; and Monday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 69 p.m. to receive gift-filled shoeboxes during the project's National Collection Week.
Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes have brightened the lives of more than 24 million children in 100 countries since 1993.
Last year, Foxworthy Baptist Church collected more than 12,000 gift-filled shoeboxes from the San Jose area. It has set a goal of 15,000 boxes for 2003. More than 6.1 million shoebox gifts were collected worldwide last year and distributed to children living in countries where poverty, terrorism, famine, disaster and disease are a way of life. This year's international goal is to collect and distribute 7 million shoebox gifts.
"Operation Christmas Child turns the whole world into a community," said San Jose resident Terry Bermudez, the music teacher at Simonds Elementary School who is volunteering as the site coordinator for Operation Christmas Child. "Though we may never see the faces of the children who receive our gifts, we meet their needs and bless their lives through the contents of a shoebox."
Volunteers are needed now to help prepare for the thousands of shoebox gifts expected to pour into the church.
For more information on how to participate with Operation Christmas Child in the San Jose area, call 800.517.3952 or visit http://www.samaritanspurse.org.
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