Blackburn Chapel seeks school supplies, shoe boxes for international program

Blackburn Chapel in Shawnee is participating in the back-to-school component of Operation Christmas Child.
By adding some simple gifts to their back-to-school shopping list and saving the shoe boxes from their new shoes, Shawnee area youth are joining the effort to share a message of hope with some 8 million needy children in more than 90 countries worldwide. Through Operation Christmas Child, the world’s largest Christmas project, youth kick off the school year learning about the impact of giving back.
To participate, people can put new school supplies into a shoe box and take it to Blackburn Chapel, 36305 Lake Road. The collection dates for the national project are Nov. 17-24, but people can drop them by anytime before then. The supplies will be sent to a processing center, where they will be packaged for delivery across the world, especially to children who are suffering because of natural disaster, disease, war, terrorism, famine and poverty.
“With all the sales on back-to-school items, this is the perfect time to start buying items for a shoe box,” said Beth Armes, regional director for Operation Christmas Child. “It’s such an incredible blessing to be involved in a project that lets kids who are suffering in other parts of the world know that someone really cares about them.”
Operation Christmas Child is a project of international relief organization Samaritan’s Purse, headed by Franklin Graham. For more information about the organization, visit www.samaritanspurse.org. For local information, call Blackburn Chapel at 273-6763.