Gainesville kids return to class, packing more than a backpack

GAINESVILLE - As Gainesville schools opened their doors this past Monday for another school year, most parents had spent some time shopping for back-to-school bargains using a school-issued supply list as their guide. But this year, some were thinking beyond their own backpacks and buying supplies for kids they have never met.

They were 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.

"With all the sales on back to school items, this is the perfect time to start buying items for a shoe box," said Gabe Walker, the Southeast regional manager for Operation Christmas Child. "It's such an incredible blessing to be involved in a project that lets kids who are suffering in other parts of the world know that someone really cares about them."

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