Operation Christmas Child saw an increase of donated shoe boxes from Airdrie locals in 2018 compared to 2017.

Frank King, News Relations Manager with Samaritan's Purse, describes just how many boxes Airdrie donated.

"The Airdrie total is 2,572 shoeboxes and that's a 33 per cent increase from the 2017 total of 1,928. We're very delighted with how Airdrie folks have stepped up to make a difference for all these hurting children."

King says the boxes will be travelling all over the world to help children in need.

"They will be going to Central America and also to Haiti and Ukraine and (some) countries in West Africa."

The boxes will be handed out to children who may not be able to celebrate Christmas at all.

"I've been to several shoebox distribution events and it's just a delight to watch them open these shoeboxes and realize that everything inside is just for them. In many cases, these shoeboxes full of gifts from Canadians is the first gift they will (have) ever received in their lives. It has a huge impact when they realize (that) these people, from a country they may have never even heard of, from people who they are almost certainly never going to meet, have filled this shoebox full of stuff just for them. It's a delight to watch them open their shoeboxes and see the look on their faces as they find everything," remembers King.

King says the Airdrie community got really involved this year.

"We do a lot of work with churches in Airdrie. When we get some folk in some of these churches who become real champions for Operation Christmas Child, they get excited about, they talk to their pastors about it, they talk to other people in the church about it, and they sort of get in front of people. Then, people respond to it. They go out and pack boxes, they drop them off at the collection centre, they come to us and we ship them down to countries for children to receive. Usually, it comes down to people getting really excited about it and championing the program."

However, despite the Airdrie numbers being high, King says that the Alberta total fell.

"Our numbers are down a little bit and we're not terribly surprised by that. Our Alberta number is down a little bit and the reason for that we think is that the economy is still really struggling in this province. When you think about that, you realize there's still lots and lots of people in Alberta who just don't have the funds to go out and pack shoeboxes for children, and we get that. We think that's the main reason our Alberta numbers are down."

 

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