The worldwide Samaritan’s Purse effort, Operation Christmas Child, saw a busy and successful collection week in Escalon.
Open for a variety of hours during the week of Monday, Nov. 18 through Monday, Nov. 25, coordinator Pam Mendez said volunteers were kept busy taking in the donations of packed shoeboxes, which were headed for southern California on Monday afternoon. From there, they will be distributed around the world, helping provide some Christmas joy to youngsters.
Through the years the program has been in place, said officials, “more than 220 million children in over 170 countries and territories have received a gift-filled shoebox” packed by a gift giver thousands of miles away.
The shoeboxes can contain small toys, toiletries, school supplies, personal notes of encouragement and more.
As the week was winding down, volunteers working a shift at Heritage Church on Sunday, Nov. 24 were buoyed by how successful the effort has been.
“We’ve already sent about 800 boxes to the central location,” Mendez said of taking a load to Manteca earlier in the week.
She also anticipated a couple more truckloads being taken on Monday, based on the boxes that came in during the latter part of the week.
There were 40-plus volunteers working staggered shifts at Heritage Church during the week, with a crew of four to seven there much of the time. Mendez said many of the churches in Escalon brought in donations of shoe boxes along with local families and individual residents. A school group from Stockton also came in with a big donation, Mendez said.
Volunteers offered information about the Operation Christmas Child program as people dropped off their donations, while some also took a moment to join in prayer with the volunteers, offering a blessing to the boxes on their journey; wherever it takes them.
“Our boxes go to Manteca and then they go to Southern California,” Mendez explained.
From there, they could go to any number of countries and Mendez said the goal is always to provide a special gift, a little holiday happiness packed in a shoebox.
She also was pleased with the amount of boxes collected for 2024.
“It’s more than last year,” Mendez said.
