Lynn church to again participate in gift program

LYNN – For the eighth year in a row, East Baptist Church in Lynn will serve as the drop-off location for “Operation Christmas Child,” a program created by Samaritan’s Purse to provide needy children with gifts over the holiday season.Participation involves filling and wrapping an average-sized shoe box with basic gifts for a boy or girl, printing a gift tag from the Samaritan’s Purse Web site and dropping the box off at the church, located at 300 Western Ave. A $7 donation is asked for in order to cover shipping and handling costs.The opportunity to drop off packages begins this Sunday and continues through next week before ending on Sunday, Nov. 21.”This is a wonderful project that allows children primarily in Third World countries to receive presents that they wouldn’t normally get,” said Hilda Spates, Operation Christmas Child drop-off site coordinator. “Our church is privileged to be a collection center for Lynn.”Gifts should be for children in one of three age groups: 2-4, 5-9 or 10-14.Items that have been donated in the past include things such as hygiene products, harmonicas, kazoos, dolls, small toy cars, jewelry, yo-yos, jump ropes, crayons, markers, pens, pencils and/or small toys that light up or make noise, with extra batteries.Items that should not be included in the boxes are used or damaged items, war-related items such as toy guns, knives or military figures, chocolate or food, expired candy, liquids or lotions, medications or vitamins, breakable items such as snow globes or glass containers and aerosol cans.Spates says the children who receive the gifts especially enjoy when the shoeboxes are personalized. “Receivers love to have a letter or photograph inside the box,” she says. “It definitely makes the gift seem more personal and the receiving children really take it to heart.”Shoeboxes will travel from the East Coast to Boone, N.C. before they are put on cargo freight trips to their ultimate locations.For individuals who wish to track their shoeboxes to the final location, make the $7 shipping donation online through the EZ Give program at www.samaritanspurse.org and obtain a tracking number. “If you decide to track your shoebox online and you donate more than one shoebox, make sure to obtain tracking numbers for each individual box,” says Spates, adding that last year one of her boxes went to Guatemala.Last year East Baptist Church collected about 760 boxes, according to Spates, while the U.S. and other countries collected a combined amount of over 7 million shoeboxes.”We have no idea what it’s like at Christmas not to have any gifts,” says Spates. “What a joy it is to provide a child with things that many of us living in the U.S. often take for granted.”To print a gift tag or to learn more about how to prepare a box, visit www.samaritanspurse.org.