Students send Christmas goodwill around world

Just before Thanksgiving vacation, about 6 first through seventh grade students from Abington Christian Academy (ACA) loaded 20 shoebox-sized packages into the back of a car belonging to Louise Cator, ACA's business manager.

Some boxes were covered in colorful wrapping paper. Others were decorated in drawings and phrases such as Merry Christmas or God Loves You. Inside the boxes were small toys, toiletry items, gloves, markers and candy.

The boxes are headed for a local Operation Christmas Child (OCC) Drop-off Center, then to a regional office in Maryland, where the boxes will be packed up and sent overseas to children in dire circumstances in countries such as Uganda, Cambodia and the Dominican Republic.

Seth Young, of Clarks Summit, a first grade student, said he is very happy to help kids who don't have things.

Seventh-grader Eva Rappenglueck, of Benton, said the annual schoolwide project is a lot of fun and it shows children around the world that someone cares for them.

She also said the student body watched a video showing children in other countries opening shoe boxes that had been gathered and distributed by Operation Christmas Child.

It was amazing to see children from the other side of the world getting shoe boxes like the ones we packed, she said. They were so excited to receive something as simple as a bouncy ball or a toothbrush.

Last year over 720,000 children received shoe boxes full of simple gifts. This year Operation Christmas Child announced that it shipped its 100 millionth box since it began its ministry in 1993.