Packages of joy

Gifts: Brighten lives of poor children

Please see GIFTS, Page 2

Continued from Page 1

JOHN CHAMBERS/THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

Jennifer Larson, of Ozawkie, holds a poster promoting the Operation Christmas Child program. The operation sends shoe boxes stuffed with gifts to children in 115 impovershed nations.

Shoeboxes hold presents for children around the world

How to donate

shoe boxes

The collection point: in Topeka for shoe boxes is R.J. Carr's Family Bookstore, 2121 S.W. Fairlawn Plaza Drive. Pickup times are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday. The store is closed Sundays, but the shoe boxes are picked up outside the store that day.

Operation

Christmas Child

Sponsoring organization: Samaritan's Purse

Headquarters: Boone, N.C.

Founded: 1993

Current chief officer: Franklin Graham, president

Donor countries: U.S., Austria, Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Switzerland and United Kingdom

Recipients: Children in more than 115 countries

Estimated deliveries this year: more than seven million

Last year's U.S. donations: 3,606,205

Last year's deliveries: 6,199,783

U.S. collection centers: 233

U.S. relay centers: 1,134

U.S. processing centers: seven

U.S. volunteers: 38,693

Total U.S. volunteer hours: 213,863

2002 Topeka collections: 1,830

By John Chambers

THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

OZAWKIE --- Jennifer Larson is a person with a mission.

The mission of this Alaska native and mother of two college-age daughters is to collect, fill and send shoe boxes to children "in desperate situations" around the world.

Since 1995, Larson has filled shoe boxes with small gifts for children through a project called Operation Christmas Child. The shoe boxes convey a practical demonstration of the love and compassion that are the heart of the Christmas message.

Operation Christmas Child is one of many projects of Samaritan's Purse that "demonstrates God's love through gift-filled shoe boxes," according to Franklin Graham, president and son of noted evangelist Billy Graham. Samaritan's Purse is an international Christian relief organization that provides help for areas of suffering from poverty, wars, famines, disease and natural disasters.

For many children, the shoe box they receive contains the first gifts they have ever been given, Larson said.

The collection period for the gift shoe boxes is the week before Thanksgiving. This year, that is Nov. 17 to 24, and Larson is already busy spreading the word about Operation Christmas Child. She has learned not to set goals for the number of boxes collected, but instead just tries to top the previous year's totals.

Larson's involvement in Operation Christmas Child began in Kodiak, Alaska, when a man shared information about the project with the Larson's church. Larson and her two daughters, Teresa, then 11, and Stephanie, then 9, went shopping and filled two shoe boxes with gifts for girls their own age. Larson still has the sales slip among her mementoes in a large scrapbook. They spent $84.10, "probably more than was needed," even with the high prices in Alaska, Larson said. Spending a lot of money isn't needed, however --- "$12 to $15 will do a nice job," and Larson recommended doing some shopping in the dollar- type stores.

"Sturdy things probably are better than fancy things."

She said suitable gifts may be school supplies; small toys, dolls or stuffed animals; toiletries, hard candy and gum; tool sets; Christian books and Bibles; candles or flashlights with extra batteries. List of appropriate and inappropriate gifts are made available to participants in the project. Donors are asked not to include used items, toy weapons or knives, chocolate or perishable food items, liquids of any kind, medicines of any kind (even cough drops), or breakable items.

Crayons and coloring books are prized items.

"God always seems to get the right box to the right people," Larson said. She has heard stories of recipients who had been longing for the very items they found in their boxes.

Participants are encouraged to include a note to the child, and a photo of themselves or family, and a self-addressed envelope. Samaritan's purse provides an international reply coupon providing postage. That coupon can be exchanged for postage to send a first class letter back to the donor. Donors who include their name and address, or e-mail address, sometimes hear from a child who receives a box. Although few of the recipients are likely to have their own computer, they may have access to the Internet at a library.

"It is just so exciting to think you have touched a life (so far away)," Larson said.

Larson has received several letters from recipients from overseas, and one e-mail from a boy in Romania. The first letter her family received was from a widow in Bosnia. That letter was translated for her by a crew member aboard a boat in Alaska.

The appreciative letter and accompanying family photos "kind of hooked me," Larson said. "What keeps me hooked is knowing I can affect a life. I can help, can give back by giving a shoe box. It (0)s a way for me to be a missionary from my own home, so to speak."

Donors also are encouraged to enclose a $5 check to help provide shipping costs. However, that is considered a donation, not a requirement.

Age-appropriate gift boxes are prepared for either boys of girls of ages 2 to 4, 5 to 9 or 10 to 14 years old.

Larson said when children get their boxes, they look for pictures and letters, and show them off, often saying, "This is my family. They love me." Every item in the box is loved, treasured, used and treasured, Larson said.

"They don't treat these shoe boxes lightly."

The total shoe boxes collected in 2001 at the Topeka relay center was 1,803. Last year, despite complications an unusually tight personal schedule, the total local collection was 1,830. Larson does hope for at least 2,000 gift shoe boxes this year.

If a donor has been unable to fill a shoe box, he or she should bring the box to the collection point anyway, Larson said. Each box is gone over, inappropriate items are removed and partially filled boxes are filled with extra items.

Larson's life in Kansas and involvement in Operation Christmas Child has come full circle.

Larson's mother was pregnant with her when she and Larson's father moved from the Topeka area to Alaska. Larson who was reared in Alaska, and then met and married her husband, Mark, in Juneau. Mark Larson is now retired after working 24 years in the Coast Guard. The couple moved from Juneau to Kodiak when their daughter Teresa was 6 months old. In 1996, Jennifer Larson moved back to Kansas with her family.

The Larsons now live in Ozawkie, in a house they built on land formerly owned by her late grandfather. Her father and stepmother built a house next door to them. The Larson's eldest daughter, Teresa, is now a junior at Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa, and daughter Stephanie, 18, is applying to enter Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and become a missionary in Africa.

When they moved to the Topeka area, Larson assumed everyone knew about Operation Christmas Child. When she didn't hear anything about, she discovered nobody seemed to know anything about it. By then, it was already January, too late to collect boxes. In 1997 she obtained materials about the project and shared them with her church, Rock Creek Bible Church, at K-4 and K-92 highways. That year's effort produced 43 boxes, which went to a collection center in Wichita.

The next year she had 50 boxes to take to Wichita and in 1999 there were 98 boxes. By then the word was starting to get out. The next year's load consisted of 580 boxes from six churches, Jefferson West High School and other sources. Some contributors who had known about the project had already mailed their shoe boxes to the Samaritan's Purse headquarters in Boone, N.C., and didn't go to Wichita with the boxes collected at the local relay center.

This time, when Larson took the boxes to the collection center, they filled the back of her husband's truck and a friend's van. She spent the day there volunteering at the collection center, one of 233 collection centers in 50 states. The collection center which now serves the Topeka area is located at Overland Park.

From the collection centers, the boxes go to one of seven processing centers. Kansas boxes go either to Denver or Minneapolis. At the processing centers, the boxes are checked for inappropriate items, condition of the gift items and addition of needed items. In 2001 the Larson family went to the Denver processing center as volunteers.

Ultimately, the gift shoe boxes from the U.S. and six other countries are distributed to children in 115 countries.

Operation Christmas Child has become a part of the Larson family through the years. The family spent their summer vacation in July 2002 on a visit to the Samaritan's Purse headquarters in Boone. Jennifer Larson's goal is to travel overseas and deliver of the show boxes to the children.

In the meantime, she is drumming up interest in Operation Christmas Child by providing information and serving as the relay center coordinator for the Topeka area. She is available to talk with groups about the shoe box project, and can provide free literature and videos. She may be reached at cell phone number (785) 213-1483.

John E. Chambers is a writer and photographer living in North Topeka. He can be reached at 234-6773 or by e-mail at jackpot3@swbell.net.

OZAWKIE

Copyright 2003
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.