Airdrie residents are invited to bless children with Operation Christmas Child shoebox gifts. 

Samaritan’s Purse is an International Relief Organization that helps out all around the world. The Canada branch has done a lot of relief work in our country, from several months of relief work after the Fort Mcmurray fires in 2016. Their single largest Canadian disaster response was helping out flood victims after the 2013 floods in Calgary and southern Alberta Regions. They have also done disaster relief work in the Philippines after cyclones, Japan after a tsunami. 

Their most recent relief work was helping out this summer in the BC interior helping wildfire victims. 

One of the many things they are proud of but this being their biggest one is providing over a million people with long-term safe drinking water. 

Frank King, who is the news media relations manager with Samaritan’s Purse is more than excited for their Christmas event. 

“Samaritan’s Purse has been doing operation Christmas Child since 1993 and since that time. More than 187,000,000 children have received shoeboxes from generous people in Canada, the United States, Britain, Australia, and a bunch of other countries.” 

King went on to say that last year alone Canadians filled more than 373,000 shoeboxes with school supplies, hygiene items and toys for children in Central America and French-speaking West Africa. 

If people are willing to create a shoebox and send it away to children in need you have a couple of options. 

“Canadians get shoeboxes either from us or they can get their own shoeboxes and go to stores like Costco, Walmart and stores like that to fill it with different things like hygiene supplies, school supplies or toys.” 

King continued to say once the shoeboxes are full you can go to their website https://www.samaritanspurse.ca/, type in your Postal Code to find the closest drop-off location to you. It does cost at least ten dollars to ship the box so that can be donated through their website or just put in the box at the drop-off location. 

If a person doesn’t have the time to go out and create the shoebox, you can always go to their website and create a shoebox through them and the different options they have. 

King does ask that if you do decide to create a shoebox to donate, please drop them off at the specific locations anytime from November 15th to the 21st. 

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