50°

The project is called Operation Christmas Child, and it gathered 6,605,277 boxes last year (3,919,919 in the United States) for children in 89 countries.

The Juneau chapter of the group is holding an organizational meeting from 4-6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 14, to hand out pamphlets, orientation material and bags of shoeboxes to interested donators.

"This is a way of reaching out to kids in another part of the world," said Debra Gerrish, a member of the project core team in Juneau who's donated for the last four years. "It really teaches children the real meaning of Christmas - it's better to give than to receive. In our country, we get caught up in the part of Christmas that's buy-buy-buy."

Shoeboxes usually include hygiene items, school supplies, toys, hard candy, a family photo and a note. All boxes donated in Alaska will be sent to the far eastern reaches of Russia.

"When I was young I was poor, so I know what it would mean to get something like this," Gerrish said. "Oftentimes this shoebox is the only time that they know there's somebody out there who cares about them."

Operation Christmas Child was started by Dave Cooke, a Welsh layman, in 1990. Samaritan's Purse, a Christian charity in Boone, N.C., runs the operation in the United States. The Rev. Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham, heads the organization.

Donations are broken into three age groups: 2-4, 5-9 and 10-14. In terms of donations, the 5-9 group tends to be the most heavily favored, Gerrish said.

Forbidden items include: liquids, perishable foods, medicines, breakables and war-related items. Toothpaste should not be donated, because it may expire before it reaches the children. Playing cards should not be includes in boxes, because they're considered a form of gambling in Russia.

"One of the special needs for school supplies is solar calculators," she said. "In some of these countries, you can't depend on batteries for electricity."

The box collection begins Oct. 30 at Chapel by the Lake. The donations will be packed into large containers, shipped to the central Alaska processing center in Soldotna, then forwarded to processing headquarters in California.

For the second straight year, Alaska Marine Lines and Lynden Transport have donated the transportation.

The boxes will arrive at their destinations via plane, boat and, in some cases, camel.

Gerrish once received a letter from a 10-to-14-year-old girl who received one of her shoeboxes.

"She was very excited to get something from the United States, and she told be about her school and her everyday life," she said.

"(Southeast coordinator) Justine (Emerson) made the comment when she went over (to Russia.) She said the kids that didn't get a picture were basically crushed. In the orphanages, they have their beds and a bit of space. As soon as they open the boxes up, they put a picture in their living space. They can look at it and say, 'There's somebody who really cares about me.'"

Call Justine at 463-3321 for more information about the Juneau chapter, or visit www.samaritanspurse.org for information about the national project.