Washington County sends off 1,734 Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes

With Christmas rapidly approaching and temperatures plummeting, it is not unusual to get caught up in the madness of the holiday season. It is sometimes very easy to forget just how much we have to be grateful for in our nation and in our community. There are many people living in countries throughout the world that are forced to live life very differently from you and I due to circumstances such as extreme poverty. That is where Operation Christmas Child (OCC) from Samaritan’s Purse steps in.

Over the years, Washington County has shipped off thousands of OCC shoeboxes, and this year added an amazing 1,734 shoeboxes to the total. Like many years in the past, First Baptist Church of Salem served as Washington County’s drop-off center.

OCC began in 1993 when Franklin Graham, President of Samaritan’s Purse, received a phone call from a man in England asking if he would be willing to send shoeboxes full of gifts to children in Eastern Europe for Christmas. With the help of his friend Pastor Ross Rhoads, Samaritan’s Purse sent 28,000 full shoeboxes to children in the Balkans that year.

Every year since, Samaritan’s Purse has collected shoebox gifts filled with toys, school supplies, and hygiene items for children around the world. Since 1993, more than 232 million children in more than 170 countries and territories have received an OCC shoebox. The project not only intends to deliver the joy of what, for many kids, is their first gift ever, but to also give them a tangible expression of God’s love.

“It’s one of the largest outreaches that any organization can do,” said First Baptist Church Pastor Steve Gorman. “We are going to affect 1,700 [children] just from our community, and I don’t know of any other outreach or ministry event that does more than that. We had members of our congregation raise their hands if they had done any work on it, and there were maybe five or six people out of our whole congregation that did not raise their hands. So, I’d say 90% of our church was involved. Looking at how our church has embraced this ministry is really encouraging. They are doing something for people they will never meet. They have no idea who is going to see. They just know that it is going to make a difference.

“I am very proud of our leadership. Kevin and Kathy Kalb, Jonathan and Dawn Smith, and the others within the church who have really taken a leadership position,” he added. “The kids love helping too, and the Scouts have been a phenomenal help. And of course the Salem High School football team helped to load all of the shoeboxes into the truck.”

All 1,734 OCC shoeboxes were loaded into a box truck provided free of charge by Sternberg Truck & Van Rental. Alan Tarr, who has worked at Sternberg for the last 19 years, was joined by Jonathan Smith as they drove the shoeboxes to Graceland Church in New Albany to be collected at the regional drop-off center. Our seven-county region includes Clark, Crawford, Floyd, Harrison, Orange, Scott and Washington counties, and together they sent off 13,560 shoeboxes in total to be delivered to children all over the world.

Jonathan Smith and Alan Tarr

“Sternberg has always been heavily involved in the community,” said Alan Tarr. “They frequently help out local communities. They do a lot with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, St. Vincent de Paul, and we donate to a lot of stuff like Thunder Over Louisville.”

Through the continued support of local churches and volunteers, Operation Christmas Child proves to be a meaningful way for Washington County to make a difference beyond our community. As the year comes to a close and people begin to wrap up Christmas preparations, 1,734 shoeboxes provided by Washington County community members are on their way to make the lives of children all across the world a little brighter this Christmas season.