MEDIA RELEASE

As Hilo schools prepare to open their doors for another year of learning, most parents are shopping for back-to-school bargains using a school-issued supply list as their guide. But this year, Hilo parents and children are thinking beyond their own backpacks and buying supplies for kids they have never met.

Hilo residents are stocking up on items for Operation Christmas Child — a massive year-round project of international Christian relief and evangelism organization Samaritan’s Purse — where participants fill shoe boxes with school supplies, toys, necessity items and letters of encouragement for kids overseas.

“The school supplies packed in these simple shoe box gifts often provide children with their only opportunity to attend school,” said Rene Morgan, Oahu Area Coordinator for Operation Christmas Child. “I’m excited that with back to school deals, I can multiply the number of shoe boxes I pack.”

This shoe box packing effort, requiring months of organization and preparation, will reach some 8.5 million kids who are suffering because of natural disaster, disease, war, terrorism, famine and poverty. For many of these children, the shoe box will be the first gift they have ever received.

“As a result of these sales, families are buying more items for less to pack in this year’s shoe box gifts,” said Jennifer Trevithick, Regional Director of West Coast Region for Operation Christmas Child. “This means we are able to reach more children in need all around the world.”

Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child has hand-delivered shoe box gifts to more than 86 million hurting children in some 130 countries.

HOW TO HELP NEEDY KIDS

* Help enlist families, churches, scout troops, community groups and businesses to take advantage of back-to-school sales by collecting school supplies for shoe box gifts.

* Fill shoe boxes with school supplies, toys, necessity items and a letter of encouragement and drop off the gift boxes at a collection site near you during National Collection Week.

— Find out more:
www.samaritanspurse.org/occ