Operation Christmas Child is a branch of a greater international organization known as Samaritan’s Purse. The organization is a nondenominational evangelical Christian organization providing aid to people around the world in poverty and in need of relief.

 

OCC’s biggest project is Operation Christmas Shoebox, which is when they collect boxes full of toys and other items for children in impoverished countries.

 

“It’s really cool when people can come together as a community to make children happy,” said Elizabeth Henry, the president of the Operation Christmas Shoebox club at Virginia Tech.

 

This year, boxes were given out at Gobblerfest in early November and were collected shortly after. The shoeboxes were organized and then sent to the closest regional office, which is in Charlotte, North Carolina.

 

"It's grown every year," said Henry. “It was very surprising because I didn't expect that many people would get involved because people have other things going on in their lives." 

 

GobblerConnect shows that the club already has 300 undergraduate students in it and that this year they collected more than 1000 boxes. Though, 300 students are registered, there are seven members who really organize the boxes and prepare them to ship.

 

To some it might just be a shoebox but for the organization works to fill children’s hearts with joy. Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child has delivered 95 million shoeboxes to 130 countries.

 

Most kids that are given shoeboxes have grown up in hardship and have lost hope because of their situation, which makes a small gift very special for them.

 

“When you hear Elizabeth’s story, you realkize that we don’t think about orphans overseas,” said Vice President of the club, Mai-Khanh Hunyh. “American kids nowadays wan iPhones or laptops but then you hear about kids overseas who are really struggling”.

 

The vision behind the shoebox is that it will encourage young children and give them optimism. Every box is unique and goes to many children that have never received a single gift before.

 

“Christmas isn’t about what you get, it’s about what you give,” Hunyh said.