Submitted photo Operation Christmas Child International spokesperson Mary Damron, center, sits with OCC Regional Manager Mike Brummitt, left, and local OCC Project Leader Bob Cowgill.

ELKINS — With Operation Christmas Child heading into the stretch run for the holiday season, the First United Methodist Church is ramping up its efforts to help the less fortunate.

Volunteers with the church are currently filling shoeboxes for the project, which sends toys and necessities to severely underprivileged children in countries such as Africa and Ukraine.

The shoeboxes are scheduled to be shipped to processing centers in North Carolina and Baltimore next month. The First United Methodist Church is hosting a Packing Party on Sunday, Nov. 5. The event is scheduled for noon, and the community is invited to come out and help fill and bundle the boxes.

“We will be getting the boxes ready for shipment during the packing party,” First United Methodist Church volunteer Imre Barsy told The Inter-Mountain. “We are still hoping to get some donations of material, and some money to help us get enough stuff to fill the boxes.”

In 2022 alone, the FUMC provided 1,500 shoeboxes to Samaritan’s Purse, which is the organization that spearheads Operation Christmas Child. Churches in Randolph County combined to send out more than 10,000 boxes in 2022.

“Right now, we really need donations of toys to fill the boxes, and monetary donations to purchase enough shoebox items for the packing party,” said Bob Cowgill, the church’s OCC Project Leader.

Samaritan’s Purse is an evangelical Christian humanitarian aid organization that provides help to people in physical need as a key part of its Christian missionary work.

Citizens can also fill a shoebox themselves and drop it off before Nov. 1 at the FUMC, which is located on Kerens Avenue. Those packing a shoebox should include a “wow” item, which can be a stuffed animal, soccer ball with pump, or some type of clothing that will capture the child’s attention when he or she opens it. 

Other toys, hygiene items, and school supplies can be added to help fill the box. The shoebox recipients will be boys and girls, age groups 2 to 4, 5 to 9, and 10 to 14.

Kessler Trucking provides tractor trailers to take the filled boxes to OCC’s distribution centers, while Woodford Oil transports them to the local collection center in Bowden. Both companies and their drivers provide their time and resources at no charge.

This will be the 29th year that Samaritan’s Purse International has presented Operation Christmas Child. To obtain more information or to make a donation, call the First United Methodist Church at 304-636-0660.