Operation Christmas Child has been gathering gifts and delivering them to needy children worldwide for 33 years. Amanda Koldenhoven figures that this year marks her 24th volunteering for the program.

“It’s the best return on investment I have found,” said the member of Rooted Church. “One box shares the gospel with five to nine people, including the child who gets the box, family, friends and neighbors.”

Operation Christmas Child is an annual program operated by Samaritans Purse, a Christian relief ministry led by Franklin Graham and based in North Carolina. The group has delivered more than 232 million shoebox gifts to children in more than 170 countries and territories.

When the gifts are delivered to children overseas, church workers trained by Samaritans Purse pair each box with a booklet entitled “The Greatest Gift,” which is printed in 100 languages.

The booklet explains how the gift box is like Jesus, who out of love freely gave his life for the world.

“Children don’t do anything to earn the gifts,” said Koldenhoven, “and they realize that people loved them enough, because of Jesus’s love, to pass this gift to you.”

Anyone can fill a shoebox with gifts that are fun or practical. Typical gifts include crayons, coloring books, toothbrushes, socks and flip-flops. Toy guns, camouflage and other items are prohibited.

Every fall, 60 local churches and dozens of volunteers collect the boxes.

The action picks up with National Collection Week on Nov. 17-24. A larger group of seasonal volunteers gathers the shoeboxes from churches and takes them to Vista Grande Baptist Church, which supports the project and has a loading dock.

The pace picks up further Nov. 25 when the boxes start making their way to a processing center in Denver, one of eight sites nationally. There, an even larger group of seasonal volunteers examine each box, making sure contents are appropriate and labeling each box for its intended audience of boys and girls of various ages.

Local organizers say they need all three kinds of volunteers: those who serve year-round and those who focus on collection and processing.

“We could always use more year-round volunteers,” said area coordinator Betty Walchok, now in her fifth year leading local volunteers. She attends Living Springs Church.

Walchok says she has traveled to participate in short-term missionary projects in Mexico, India, and Ecuador, but Operation Christmas Child “is a way I can be a missionary from the comfort of my own couch.”

“After I retired, I was looking for place to give back and do something to help the community,” she said, and her career in human resources prepared her for the work.

She said her volunteers sent nearly 15,000 boxes to the Denver processing center in 2024. This year she’s hoping for closer to 17,000. Last year, the Denver center processed 878, 752 shoe boxes.

Founded in 1970, Samaritans Purse had revenue of $1.9 billion in 2024. Operation Christmas Child accounts for $460 million of the ministry’s $940 million in program expenditures.

Franklin Graham also leads the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, which was founded by his father, Billy. In July, Franklin Graham took both groups out of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, a watchdog organization founded by his father.

How you can help

Anyone who wants to pack a gift box or volunteer can find the information they need at the Samaritan’s Purse website: samaritanspurse.org.

Anyone also can volunteer to work at the Denver processing center by visiting occvolunteersignup.com.

There are also seasonal employment opportunities with Samaritan’s Purse.