Participants of the Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child project can decide whether to pack for a girl or boy between the ages of 2-4, 5-9 or 10-14 and may use any standard shoebox from home or the printed ones, now available at the Laurinburg Exchange, at 219 S. Main St., Suite H, in the Oaks building.
                                 Tomeka Sinclair | The Laurinburg Exchange

Participants of the Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child project can decide whether to pack for a girl or boy between the ages of 2-4, 5-9 or 10-14 and may use any standard shoebox from home or the printed ones, now available at the Laurinburg Exchange, at 219 S. Main St., Suite H, in the Oaks building.

Tomeka Sinclair | The Laurinburg Exchange

LAURINBURG — The Laurinburg Exchange office is again serving as a pickup site for Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes.

The Samaritan’s Purse project Operation Christmas Child collects shoebox gifts filled with fun toys, school supplies and hygiene items — and delivers them to children in need around the world to “demonstrate God’s love in a tangible way.” For many of these children, the gift-filled shoebox is the first gift they have ever received.

Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child, the world’s largest Christmas project of its kind, has collected and delivered more than 220 million shoebox gifts to children in more than 170 countries and territories.

Anyone is eligible to pack a shoebox.

Participants can decide whether to pack for a girl or boy between the ages of 2-4, 5-9 or 10-14 and may use any standard shoebox from home or the printed ones, now available at the Laurinburg Exchange, at 219 S. Main St., Suite H, in the Oaks building. The office is open between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.

Participants are encouraged to select a quality “wow” item like a doll, a deflated soccer ball with a pump or a stuffed animal; and then fill it with other toys, hygiene items and school supplies. Do not include candy, toothpaste, used or damaged items, war-related toys, breakables, food or liquids in these boxes.

Participants who prefer the convenience of online shopping can browse samaritanspurse.org/buildonline to select gifts matched to a child’s specific age and gender, then finish packing the virtual shoebox by adding a photo and personal note of encouragement.

Shoeboxes will be collected at Stewartsville Baptist Church in Laurinburg from Nov. 18-25 during National Collection Week. For more information, contact Linda Marshall at 910-506-4179.

Scope

Shoebox gifts are prepared for overseas shipment at eight major processing centers across the U.S.—Atlanta; Baltimore/Washington; Boone, North Carolina; Charlotte, North Carolina; Dallas/Fort Worth; Denver; Chicago; and Fullerton, California.

Shoebox gifts are collected in Australia, Austria, Canada, Finland, Germany, New Zealand, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States.

More than 11.3 million shoebox gifts were collected globally in 2023, 10 million from the U.S. alone. In 2024, Operation Christmas Child hopes to collect enough shoeboxes to reach another 12 million children.

Over 540,000 volunteers worldwide—with more than 213,000 of those in the U.S.—are involved in collecting, shipping and distributing shoebox gifts.

Operation Christmas Child is a project of Samaritan’s Purse, an international Christian relief and evangelism organization headed by Franklin Graham. Samaritan’s Purse currently works in more than 100 countries to provide aid to victims of war, disease, disaster, poverty and famine.

Tomeka Sinclair can be reached at tsinclair@laurinburgexchange.com.