November 30, 2001

OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD MINISTERS TO YOUNG VICTIMS OF TERRORISM WORLDWIDE

By Michael Ireland
Chief Correspondent
ASSIST News Service

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA (ANS) -- Demonstrating that the giving spirit is alive and well in Minnesota, area kids, families, and schools joined Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan's Purse international relief organization and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, for a press conference and shoe box gift send-off to hurting children in war-torn and poverty-stricken countries around the world, including Afghanistan and Sudan.

"Now that we kids in America have gotten a small taste of what kids in warring countries live with, it's more important than ever that we reach out to them because we still have so much more than they do," said Micaela Mathre, of Maple Grove, Minnesota, who hand-delivered shoe boxes in the Dominican Republic last year, according to a statement put out by Samaritan's Purse. (Pictured: Some of the cartons of shoe box gifts await processing at the Minneapolis shoe box center).

Joining Micaela were other former Minneapolis Operation Christmas Child Kid Ambassadors including Jesse Leneaugh (1999), 14, of Minneapolis, and Sarah Gauche (1998), 16, of Burnsville, Minnesota, along with dozens of people from local schools and churches, as well as some of the 8,300 area volunteers. The number of shoe boxes being sent from Minnesota totaled 650,000. (Pictured: Every one of the 8,300 volunteers at the Minneapolis processing center received an Operation Christmas Child t-shirt bearing the OCC logo).

AND FROM NEW YORK...

For almost half of her young life, she has reached out to them -- children in lands faraway whose lives have been devastated by natural disaster, famine, war, and terrorism.

Now, 12-year-old Whitney, a young victim of terrorism herself, understands better than ever the comfort found in a stranger's gesture of kindness.

Despite current troubles in America, Whitney joined millions of other kids again this Christmas in sending shoe box gifts filled with hope to hurting kids throughout the world.

"Nothing will stop us from sending Operation Christmas Child boxes to the kids in other parts of the world who need them," the seventh-grader from New York City, who has seen firsthand the incredible generosity that has been poured out onto her devastated city, said in an OCC press release.

Now that they know how it feels to be targeted, New York City kids and kids across America are reaching out to young victims of terrorism in Afghanistan and 89 other countries this Christmas.

Their message? "We care!"

Their method? Shoe boxes.  Millions of them filled with gifts, necessity items, school supplies, and personal notes of encouragement for suffering kids in 90 countries.

Their send-off? An airlift, Dec. 12, of 90,000 shoe box gifts from New York City kids and others aboard the world's largest cargo plane, bound for kids suffering the effects of terrorism in Afghanistan and Central Asia.

"Through Operation Christmas Child, two worlds that have recently collided in horrific pain and suffering will, for a few moments, unite in the innocence and hope of a child," said an OCC press release.

"The giving spirit is an American tradition that did not fall victim to the horrific terrorist attacks of Sept. 11," said Samaritan's Purse President Franklin Graham, head of Operation Christmas Child, the world's largest children's Christmas project.

"President Bush says one of the best weapons we have against terrorism is to show the world our true strength of character and kindness. Through Operation Christmas Child, we're doing that, and American kids are leading the way," Graham said before the event.

"The children in Afghanistan need shoe box gifts just as much as anyone else," said 11-year-old Meg Ong in a press release from OCC. The middle-schooler from the Bronx couldn't wait to pack her shoe box, which included a personal note of encouragement. "I hope the child who gets my shoe box knows that I care about them and God cares about them," said Meg.

"I'm so excited to know my box is going to a little girl in Afghanistan," said Meg. "I want her to know that I care about her and God cares about her."

For the past several years through Operation Christmas Child, the seventh-grader and her classmates at Manhattan Christian Academy have been sending their special shoe box gifts, complete with handwritten notes of encouragement, to kids in faraway lands where terrorism, war, famine, and natural disaster are part of life.

Meg's shoe box gift, along with 90,000 other shoe box gifts, will be airlifted out of New York's JFK International Airport, Dec. 12, and delivered to young victims of terrorism and other crises.

Also included in the Dec. 12 airlift: 
    *Hundreds of shoe box gifts from New York City school children and Sunday school classes
    *Thousands of shoe box gifts collected by a New York City firefighter and personalized with the names of victims from the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks
    *Shoe box gifts from the young daughters of the pilot of one of the Sept. 11 hijacked planes

The Antonov 225, the world's largest cargo plane (designed to carry the Russian space shuttle) and the largest plane ever serviced by JFK, will transport 90,000 shoe box gifts to children in Afghanistan or Sudan. The airlift and a preceding press conference are open to media Dec. 12, 10:30 a.m. EST. The giant Antonov aircraft will take off at 1 p.m. EST.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Dave Jacob, Upper Midwest Assistant Representative for Operation Christmas Child, describing the process the shoe box gifts go through in the distribution center in Minneapolis, said the boxes are color-coded and separated into red for girls and green for boys. (Pictured: Dave Jacob, Upper Midwest Assistant Representative for Operation Christmas Child, with Una, Megan and Emma Ireland who brought shoe box gifts from their church to the processing center in Bloomington, Minnesota, for delivery to children around the world).

There are approximately 17 or 18 shoe box gifts to a carton, according to their size, which are also divided again according to age groups,  2-4 years, 5-9, and 10-14. There are 12 cartons to a pallet, he said.

These are then loaded by forklift onto sea containers holding 300 cartons, each weighing 50 pounds stacked four high. Each sea container holds 23,000 pounds of shoe boxes. (Pictured: Cartons of packaged shoe box gifts being loaded by forklift truck into a sea-going cargo container).

On the day ASSIST News Service visited the Bloomington, Minnesota, warehouse, which serves the upper Midwest, seven sea containers were being loaded and shipped to Romania, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan. Each sea container is then loaded onto trains destined for a port city depending on its final location, Jacob said.

The final leg of the journey overseas is made by barge. At the other end, several trucks wait to transport the shoe box cartons to their final destination, he said.

Jacob said that "inappropriate items" included in some shoe boxes, such as warlike toys, bottles of shampoo, medicines, and chocolate candy bars are not discarded -- they are redistributed to any one of 16 local charities in the Minneapolis metropolitan area, who in turn pass them on to their clients.

Kris Johnson, an on-call orthopedic nurse at Fairview Riverside Hospital in Minneapolis, has been in charge of the redistributed items this year. She has been putting in 12-hour days as a volunteer in a paid position. This year she brought along her 11-year-old daughter Kaari to help sort the items for donation to area charities. (Pictured: Kris Johnson and her 11-year-old daughter Kaari help to redistribute some of the inappropriate items, such as bottles of shampoo and
chocolate candy, to more than 16 charities in the upper Midwest).

MORE ABOUT OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD

A kids-helping-kids project, Operation Christmas Child begins with a simple shoe box personally filled with small toys, necessity items, school supplies, candy, family photos, and, often, a handwritten note from a child in America or any of nine other participating countries. The shoe box gifts are hand-delivered by Operation Christmas Child staff and partners to needy children throughout the world.

Since 1993, more than 13 million shoe box gifts have been delivered to needy children in 104 countries whose citizens suffer from terrorism, war, poverty, famine, disease, and natural disaster. This year, Operation Christmas Child will transport 5 million shoe box gifts to underprivileged children in 90 countries, with a goal of including nations in Central Asia, the Middle East, and Afghanistan. (Pictured: Megan and Emma Ireland help load a trunkful of shoe box gifts).  

Operation Christmas Child is a project of Samaritan's Purse, an international relief organization headed by Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham. Samaritan's Purse, named by SmartMoney magazine (Dec. 2000) as the most efficient religious charity, is currently in New York helping those who are grieving and traumatized following the events of Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the city. The ministry is providing a team of pastors who are available to pray, listen, and offer hope. (Pictured: A trunkload of Operation Christmas Child shoe box gifts waiting for processing and distribution).
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