Volunteers prepare to ship off thousands of shoeboxes

Even Santa Claus had his elves.

Operation Christmas Child, on the other hand, relies on the generosity of everyday people to accomplish its international mission — making sure that children in even the most dire of situations receive a gift for the holidays.

This season, shoeboxes packed to the brim with Nerf footballs, socks and toothbrushes will be assembled by volunteers and shipped to places like Iran, Vietnam and Syria.

“It goes into these countries as a humanitarian effort,” said Babette Manning, children’s ministry director at Park Forest Baptist Church.

For nearly six years now, Park Forest Baptist Church has served as one of Operation Christmas Child’s relay centers, meaning that in addition to the congregation packing its own shoeboxes for donation, the building also serves as a drop zone for other collection sites like Chick-fil-A.

This year, the church’s Boys and Girls Club will host a packing party on Wednesday, where Manning said that they usually fill around 100 boxes with hygiene items, clothing and a few surprises.

“We try and put in musical instruments, kazoos or harmonicas or candy,” Manning said.

Sometimes people even send along pictures of their families so that the child receiving the shoebox can feel a sense of connection.

Jerilyn Catarelli, the relay center coordinator at Oasis of Love Church in Huntingdon, said that her congregation begins collecting donations and supplies for the program as soon as January, almost a full year before their youth group’s packing party.

“It’s nice to do it all year so you get the discounts,” Catarelli said.

Some of the best items that people offer aren’t even store bought. Catarelli has seen people donate handcrafted wooden cars, homemade dresses and she has even crocheted hats for the cause.

Operation Christmas Child is popular within the church, especially among the youth group.

“The children realize how thankful they should be for what they have,” Catarelli said.

A few years ago, Crystal Haagen, the Central Pa. coordinator for Operation Christmas Child, went to Peru to help distribute shoeboxes, a joyous occasion that was marred only by the level of poverty that she witnessed.

“It was a blessing and a heartache at the same day,” Haagen said.

This year, the Centre County Christian Academy in Bellefonte will serve as central Pa.’s collection center, where volunteers will labor to prepare shoeboxes from across the region for shipment to Baltimore, Md.

Haagen’s collection goal for the year is more than 14,000 boxes.

She said that the kids always like to receive a “wow” gift somewhere in their shoebox but are just as grateful to receive a toothbrush.

“The little things that we don’t even think about, they love,” Haagen said.

This story was originally published November 12, 2015 at 6:54 PM.