This year our town had its own drop-off location for Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. The Milton Adventist Church fellowship hall was open several hours a day for eight days to receive boxes. Community members from several local churches volunteered their time to collect and pack boxes. When the eight days were over, Milton-Freewater had given 377 shoeboxes! They were then loaded onto a horse trailer and taken to a collection center in Richland. Once there, boxes were stacked in semi-trailers and driven to Denver. In Denver, they were packed on planes to be flown to children in the Philippines, Indonesia, Mongolia, Peru, Native American Tribes, and also to a “sensitive” country.
Jessica Dougherty-Burt, Milton’s Relay Center Coordinator said, “We were really blessed by the support of the community, and we’re looking forward to next year!”
For some of these children, this may be their only Christmas gift. For others, it will be the first gift they have ever received. To find out more information, and to plan for next year, visit www.samaritanspurse.org.