Local Volunteers Get an Early Start on Holiday Giving, Helping 9 Million Needy Kids

WHAT: Families and volunteers will gather at Anchorage Baptist Temple to pack hundreds of shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child. The gift-filled shoe boxes packed by local residents will be hand-delivered to children around the world suffering from natural disaster, war, terrorism, disease, poverty and famine. The boxes packed at will go toward the estimated 7,000 gift-filled shoe boxes that will be collected from the Anchorage area.

Anchorage will be the first stop for hundreds of shoe boxes that local families, churches and groups will fill with toys, school supplies and necessity items. The shoe box gifts are hand-delivered to hurting children around the world using whatever means necessary—sea containers, trucks, trains, airplanes, helicopters, boats, elephants and dog sleds.

WHEN: September 27. 2012, 7 p.m.

WHERE: OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD—Anchorage Baptist Temple, 6401 E. Northern Lights Blvd., Anchorage, AK 99504

For more information on how to participate in Operation Christmas Child, call (253-572-1155) or visit www.samaritanspurse.org/occ. National Collection Week for gift-filled shoe boxes is Nov.12-19; however, shoe box gifts are collected all year at the Samaritan’s Purse headquarters in Boone, N.C.