samaritanspurse2Jamestown (CSi) The Jamestown community is invited to help children in other countries who are affected by war, poverty, disease or disaster through the Operation Christmas Child shoebox project.

The project has volunteers filling shoeboxes with personal hygiene items, school supplies, small toys, hard candy, bars of soap, notebooks, coloring books, wash cloths, appropriate-size T-shirts and other items.

Items NOT accepted in the shoeboxes are candy that can melt, liquids, shampoo, medications, breakable items and war-related toys.

Properly sized boxes are available at Temple Baptist Church in Northeast Jamestown. Volunteers can also use a normal shoebox, or pack items in a reusable plastic bin that is the size of a shoebox, which would also be considered a gift.

Fill a shoebox for about $15 to $20.

Volunteers will pack shoeboxes at a packing party on Sunday Oct. 26, 2014  at Temple Baptist Church.

Volunteers can drop off packed shoeboxes during collection week Nov. 17-24, 2014, at Temple Baptist Church, 1200 12th Ave. NE.

The shoeboxes should be marked for boys or girls ages 2-4, 5-9 and 10-14. The boxes will go to Bismarck, and from there they go to Minneapolis. In Minneapolis, the shoeboxes are inspected to make sure items are appropriate and then shipped to other countries. It costs $7 to send a box to another country, and people can include that amount with the shoebox if they choose to.

People can follow their shoeboxes online by registering at the Operation Christmas Child website

If someone chooses to follow a shoebox, he or she can pay $7 online and print off a bar code to track the gift. Otherwise, people can enclose a check for $7 with the shoebox. Special shoeboxes with the Operation Christmas Child logo and brochures are available at the church or by calling David Patzer at 320-9789

The project is organized by Samaritan’s Purse, an international Christian relief and nondenominational evangelism organization.