Imagine a child opening a first-ever present, which contains not only the basic necessities but also a small toy.

Families, clubs, groups, churches, neighborhoods or individuals in Butler County can easily provide this heartwarming scenario during the third week of November.

Operation Christmas Child, which is a project of Samaritan’s Purse, will have five drop-off locations throughout the county where those in the true Christmas spirit can drop off a shoebox or multiple boxes filled with basic necessities and one toy.

The collection dates are from Nov. 18 to 25.

Rege Judy, central drop-off team leader at Community Alliance Church in Center Township, said shoeboxes can be filled with toothbrushes and toothpaste; nail clippers; flashlights; water bottles; hair brushes or combs; pencils and sharpeners; erasers; crayons; rulers; notebooks; solar calculators; flip-flops; underwear; hats; shoes; or other articles of clothing.

Judy said each box should also include one of what OCC refers to as a “wow present,” such as a small game, puzzle, coloring book, binoculars, jump rope, harmonica, Slinky, stuffed animal, small Lego set or a toy figure.

He said girls like purses or small backpacks, stuffed animals and dolls; while boys like a soccer ball and air pump, hobby kit or toy truck or car.

A note from or picture of the individual or group who packed the box also delights the children who receive them, Judy said.

“Kids in other countries really respond to those,” he said.

Shoeboxes are collected for Operation Christmas Child in 11 countries and are sent to children in destitute areas during the Christmas season.

“They go out to about 170 countries, including remote Pacific islands,” Judy said. “Shoeboxes sometimes don’t arrive until later in winter or early spring because of just the logistics of getting them to the country because it’s so remote.”

Each shoebox also contains a message on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

“The main premise represents a child who may be getting their first gift ever, and they have an opportunity to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and that God loves them and cares about them,” Judy said.

He said the idea is to get a box to every impoverished child in the world, as areas where boxes are distributed are not repeated year after year because Samaritan’s Purse is always on the hunt for areas of the world where the boxes would have the most impact.

Also, children who receive project’s shoeboxes are invited to a 12-week vacation Bible school program called The Greatest Journey, and receive a certificate of completion and a New Testament Bible in their own language at the end of the program.

“They have printed Bibles in over 90 languages to be handed out,” Judy said.

He said people can use their own shoebox or boot boxes to fill, or pick up boxes at a collection site.

Each box should be for either a boy or girl, and appropriate for one of three age groups: 2 to 4, 5 to 9, or 10 to 14.

Those filling boxes can pick up labels at each collection site to denote whether each box is for a boy or girl and the age range, and each label contains a QR code.

“You can use the QR code to track the box and see what country it went to,” Judy said.

Judy said most of the boxes are the result of collections that result in packing parties. Families, high school or college students in clubs, members of a church that held a collection, neighborhoods, and other groups get together to pack the boxes.

“Operation Christmas Child works because of its volunteer network,” he said. “It’s people who have a heart for children.”

Judy said in the U.S. alone, 80,000 volunteers serve at drop-off and processing centers.

Worldwide 10 million of the 11.33 million shoeboxes collected for the project were from the U.S., he said.

“Why it matters to me so much is we hear so much negative about the U.S.,” Judy said. “Our younger generation needs to know the U.S. is a very generous, giving and caring country and this is proof of that.”

He said he sees lots of families volunteering at the Community Alliance drop-off center.

“They are trying to teach their children how to give,” Judy said. “They go out and shop together and pack boxes, then come into the church and volunteer to work.”

The Community Alliance Church not only serves as a drop-off point, but collects the cartons of shoeboxes from all the drop-off centers in Butler County and the two in Armstrong County.

Volunteers then pack full-size tractor trailers with the cartons, which are then driven to the processing center in Baltimore, Judy said.

He said boxes have been collected at Community Alliance Church for 27 years, and the church has served as a drop-off for the past six years.

Anna Schmidt, project drop-off team leader at Advance Community Church in Mars, said shoeboxes have been collected at that site since 2017.

Schmidt said the shoeboxes even were collected during the coronavirus pandemic, as all operations were held outdoors.

Last year, 1,300 boxes were collected at Advance Community.

Schmidt attended a Girl Scout meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 23, in the Mars area to talk about Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes.

“A lot of these kids don’t understand that in many countries, children might not even have their own toothbrush,” she said. “This gets them to think of someone other than themselves and teaches the joy of giving.”

She said those dropping off boxes are not given a quick “thanks” before volunteers hustle the boxes inside.

“We try to talk to them for a few minutes and pray with them if they have a prayer request,” Schmidt said. “We try to make it a transformational experience for the donors, instead of transactional.”

She is thrilled to have served as drop-off team leaders at the church for eight years, and has no plans to stop.

“I just think it’s a wonderful way to show love to our community and be part of something much bigger than ourselves,” Schmidt said.