Every year since 2000, Landmark Christian Fellowship has hosted a Christmas shoebox store on behalf of Operation Christmas Child, an international organization that sends gift-laden shoeboxes to children living in third-world countries.
Throughout the year, church volunteers shop for deals on school supplies, hygiene items, toys, and other fun gifts, then price them and set up a store each November. Families then come in and build the shoeboxes together.
The experience is designed to engage local kids, who can also include personal notes and photos of themselves. To add to the impact, you can watch a video of children receiving the boxes.
In 2014, the Landmark store sent 1,400 shoeboxes. While the donors don’t know where their shoebox will end up, countries include Uruguay, El Salvador, Guatemala, Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau, Venezuela, Iraq, Equatorial Guinea, Costa Rica, Guinea, Haiti, Nicaragua, Chile, Senegal, and Ukraine.
Although shoeboxes are delivered throughout the year to different parts of the world, collection week happens in mid-November.
