Organizers of this year's Operation Christmas Child have made it easier to give. In past years, volunteers accepted shoe boxes filled with school supplies, toys and other gifts for poor children in other countries.
This year, individual items are being accepted at Robson's Card and Gift Shop, First Bank Kansas and Citizens State Bank & Trust Co., all in downtown Ellsworth. Volunteers will take the donations and pack them in shoeboxes for delivery overseas.
“Just bring one thing or two things and then the committee that works with me will fill the boxes," said Nancy Stonebraker, who is in her fourth year of leading the local Christmas Child effort.
Operation Christmas Child is a project of Samaritan's Purse, an international Christian relief organization that collects gift-filled shoeboxes and delivers them around the world to children living in poverty.
National Collection Week is Nov. 16-23. Ellsworth's United Methodist Church is the local collection point.
Stonebraker said the national goal is to increase donations by 30 percent. That would amount to 220 boxes for Ellsworth, which provided 171 boxes in 2008 and 144 boxes in 2007.
The economy is the big unknown this year.
“We increased last year and didn't expect to, so you just don't know what's going to happen," Stonebraker said.
“If we can just have an increase again this year, that would be great."
For the first time, members of the Fellowship of Christian Athletics at Ellsworth High School and Kanopolis Middle School plan to put together two or more boxes.
“This gets them started with being involved," Stonebraker said.
The Ellsworth boxes will be taken to Salina, where they will be loaded on a tractor-trailer truck for shipment to a processing center, the closest of which is in Denver.
More information on Operation Christmas Child is available from Stonebraker, (785) 531-0454.
National Collection Week is Nov. 16-22. Here are the times volunteers will be available at Ellsworth's United Methodist Church to accept donations:
Monday, Nov. 16 — 4 to 6 p.m.
Tuesday, Nov. 17 — 4 to 6 p.m.
Wednesday, Nov. 18 — Noon hour.
Thursday, Nov. 19 ‚ 4 to 6 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 20 — Noon.
Saturday, Nov. 21 — 10 a.m. to noon.
Sunday, Nov. 22 — 9:30 a.m. to noon.
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