{"id":40195,"date":"2014-09-30T10:46:01","date_gmt":"2014-09-30T14:46:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.samaritanspurse.org\/?p=40195"},"modified":"2021-08-09T15:27:48","modified_gmt":"2021-08-09T19:27:48","slug":"u-s-volunteers-demonstrate-year-round-spirit-of-giving-09-30-14-press-release","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/samaritanspurse.org\/es\/our-ministry\/u-s-volunteers-demonstrate-year-round-spirit-of-giving-09-30-14-press-release\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Volunteers Demonstrate Year-Round Spirit of Giving 09-30-14"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>BOONE, N.C., Sept. 30, 2014<\/strong> \u2014 Whether it\u2019s September or November, generous people across America believe the best time to make a difference is today. Volunteers are partnering year-round with the world\u2019s largest Christmas project of its kind to demonstrate God\u2019s love in a tangible way to millions of needy children around the world. Through Operation Christmas Child, kids, families, churches and groups fill shoeboxes with items like toys, school supplies and hygiene items, <strong>creating gifts that can make a significant difference in the lives of hurting children around the world.<\/strong><\/p><p>Operation Christmas Child is a project of Samaritan\u2019s Purse, an international Christian relief and evangelism organization headed by Franklin Graham. Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child has delivered gift-filled shoeboxes to more than <strong>113 million children in more than 150 countries.<\/strong> In 2014, Operation Christmas Child hopes to collect enough shoebox gifts to reach another <strong>10 million children.<\/strong><\/p><h3>WHY NOW?<\/h3><p><strong>Sending hope to millions of children is a massive, year-round effort, and anyone can participate.<\/strong> U.S. volunteers are needed year-round.<\/p><h4>HOW U.S. RESIDENTS CAN HELP:<\/h4><ul><li>PACK A SHOEBOX GIFT\u2014Fill shoeboxes with toys, school supplies, hygiene items and notes of encouragement. At samaritanspurse.org, click on \u201cOperation Christmas Child\u201d for step-by-step packing instructions. The shoebox gift may be the first gift a child has ever received.<\/li><li>VIRTUALLY PACK A SHOEBOX\u2014Operation Christmas Child also offers the opportunity year-round to build a shoebox through an online tool offering a personalized and convenient way to send a gift to a child in one of the hardest-to-reach countries. Go to <a href=\"https:\/\/samaritanspurse.org\/es\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">samaritanspurse.org<\/a> and click on Operation Christmas Child to build a shoebox by selecting toys and gift items, writing a note of encouragement, and \u201cpacking\u201d them in a shoebox.<\/li><li>SIGN UP TO VOLUNTEER\u2014Volunteer opportunities are available at <a href=\"https:\/\/samaritanspurse.org\/es\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">samaritanspurse.org<\/a> Click on \u201cOperation Christmas Child\u201d for more details and information.<\/li><li>SPREAD THE WORD\u2014Help enlist individuals, families and groups to take part in creating shoebox gifts.<\/li><\/ul><p>For more information on how to participate in Operation Christmas Child, call 1-800-353-5949 or visit <a href=\"https:\/\/samaritanspurse.org\/es\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">samaritanspurse.org<\/a>. National Collection Week for gift-filled shoeboxes is Nov. 17-24; however, shoebox gifts are collected all year at the Samaritan\u2019s Purse headquarters in Boone, North Carolina.<\/p><p>Using special tracking technology, participants can follow their boxes online and discover the country in which their gifts will be delivered to children in need.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOONE, N.C., Sept. 30, 2014 \u2014 Whether it\u2019s September or November, generous people across America believe the best time to make a difference is today. Volunteers are partnering year-round with the world\u2019s largest Christmas project of its kind to demonstrate God\u2019s love in a tangible way to millions of needy children around the world. Through [&#038;hellip","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":40206,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-our-ministry","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/samaritanspurse.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/samaritanspurse.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/samaritanspurse.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samaritanspurse.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samaritanspurse.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40195"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/samaritanspurse.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":177169,"href":"https:\/\/samaritanspurse.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40195\/revisions\/177169"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samaritanspurse.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/samaritanspurse.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samaritanspurse.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samaritanspurse.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}