Operation Christmas Child, the world’s largest children’s Christmas project, became even bigger in 2001. People across North America, Europe and Australia donated some 5.2 million gift-filled shoeboxes, surpassing the goal of 5 million and topping the 2000 total by 1 million.
“We are thankful to have met our international goal,” said Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan’s Purse. Each year, participants full shoeboxes with toys, candy and other small gifts. Samaritan’s Purse collects the boxes and delivers them to children who are the victims of war, persecution, poverty, disease and natural disaster. Operation Christmas Child has experienced tremendous growth from year to year, increasing from 28,000 boxes in 1993 to the current 5.2 million.
More than 2.8 million boxes were received in the United States in 2001, exceeding the 2.3 million in 2000. People in the United Kingdom gave 930,000, followed by 713,000 from Canada, 358,000 from Germany, 142,000 from the Netherlands, 106,000 from Australia and 6,000 from Finland.
(BP)
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