(Radio Iowa) – Volunteers in north-central Iowa are taking part in a national effort by collecting gifts for the Operation Christmas Child Shoebox this week. Cindy Long of Sheffield leads the effort and says they are looking for donations of several items that can be placed in the shoeboxes. “Some school supplies, with some hygiene items, like a comb, a brush, a toothbrush, no toothpaste or anything liquid can go in it, but a toothbrush, maybe a washcloth,” she says. She says they also need donated toys.

“Maybe a wow item, like a deflated soccer ball and a pump, or a big stuffed animal, something that the child can not only have supplies to go to school with and kind of take care of themselves, like the toothbrush, but something they can hold and realize that there’s somebody out there, including Jesus, that loves them,” Long says. Long says the organization’s goal this year is to fill 12 million shoeboxes across the country.

“We reach kids that have never had a gift in their life, who have never had a toothbrush. I know we go to some orphanages where I heard that there’s one toothbrush for the girls that they all share,” Long says. “Some kids can’t go to school because they don’t have their own pencil or notebook. And then, of course, if they don’t have that, they’ve never had a toy.” There are many drop off locations for the shoeboxes including at the First Covenant Church in Mason City, at the Evangelical Free Churches in both Iowa Falls and Belmond, and at the Christian Reformed Church in Parkersburg.

Operation Christmas Child has been collecting and delivering gift-filled shoeboxes to children around the world since 1993.