CHAMPION — Volunteers have been spending time in recent weeks filling shoeboxes with toys, school supplies and other items in preparation for collection week starting Monday.

The annual Operation Christmas Child national collection week will run Nov. 18-25.

Yvonne Woodworth, area coordinator for OCC, said collected shoeboxes were filled with toys, school supplies and hygiene items for children worldwide.

The operation is part of Samaritan’s Purse, which is a nondenominational evangelical Christian organization, according to its website.

The project partners with local churches across the globe to deliver these tangible expressions of God’s love to children in need.

Since 1993, more than 220 million children in more than 170 countries and territories have received an OCC shoebox.

Woodworth said every year, National Collection Week takes place the third week in November when more than 4,500 drop-off locations open nationwide.

Woodworth said OCC hopes to reach another 12 million children in 2024 with the hope of Jesus.

“Children need hope, and they need to know that they are not alone and God loves them,” said Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan’s Purse.

“Gift-filled shoeboxes open the door for us to share the hope of the Gospel with boys and girls around the. Please pray that these simple gifts have an eternal impact.”

LOCAL EFFORT

Bonnie Muresan, center drop-off team leader at Wildare Church in Champion, said morning, afternoon and evening hours have been scheduled to help people be able to drop off their boxes.

She said central drop-off boxes come from Hubbard, Kinsman, Newton Falls, Southington, Jefferson and Orwell.

Muresan said the effort is a great opportunity for people to help children around the world experience Christmas.

“The boxes go to children in different countries. Some of them have never received a Christmas gift or a gift before,” Muresan said.

She said she remembers the story of a young man who received a scarf in a shoebox and although he lived in a country with warm weather when he came to New York City later in life he wore it as a reminder of the gift and also to keep warm.

“He was blessed to receive that gift and others,” Muresan said.

Muresan said in 2023 northeast Ohio collected and shipped 12,222 shoeboxes.

A recent packaging event was held at Wildare Church where a recent visitor shared her story of how receiving a shoebox as a child changed her life.

Mariya Tartarin, a native of Ukraine shared the story that when she was 12, she received a shoebox gift from OCC.

She said the children loved receiving crayons and markers which they had not seen before.

“We were excited as children to receive colorful things that came in wrappers. We had always received candy that came in wrappers. We thought maybe Americans had a different kind of candy. We took the wrapper off the crayons and started eating them. Yuck was the response,” Tartarin said.

She said she remembers her brother drawing with the crayons on the wallpaper.

Tartarin, who later became an art teacher, said she realized the crayons were for coloring.

She said when her family later moved to the United States art became her favorite class in school.

“Art classes helped me to adjust in school. I could never see myself not doing art,” she said.

She told those who pack gifts into shoeboxes for children to put their names inside so the recipients can tell them how the presents affected them.

Trumbull County drop-off locations and hours include:

l Wildare Church, 7211 N Park Ave., Champion, 10 a.m. to noon, Monday, Wednesday and Nov. 23; 4 to 6 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and 1 to 3 p.m. Nov. 24 and 8 to 10 a.m. Nov. 25.

l Chestnut Ridge Church of God, 7215 Chestnut Ridge Road Hubbard, 5 to 7 p.m. Monday, 3 to 5 p.m. Tuesday, 4 to 6:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 2 to 4 p.m. Friday, 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Nov. 23, 12:30 to 3 p.m. Nov. 24 and 9 to 11 a.m. Nov. 25.