Local collection efforts for a national charity movement yielded nearly 17,000 gift boxes for children around the world.

Sponsored by Samaritan's Purse, a Christian charitable group with a mission of "going to the aid of the world's poor, sick and suffering," Operation Christmas Child takes place every year in the third week of November.Participants are asked to pack a shoe box for either a boy or girl within three age ranges, 2-4, 5-9 or 10-14 years old. Samaritan's Purse encourages packing a "wow" item - such as a medium to large toy, a soccer ball or stuffed animal - along with school supplies, clothing, crafts and other small toys. The boxes are then dropped off at a local collection center, like Lighthouse Church in Orwigsburg, or First Baptist Church in East Stroudsburg.Lighthouse Church was able to collect 3,600 shoe boxes alone. Along with two other collection sites in Schuylkill, the area totaled just over 4,700 boxes."Brenda Haag, who runs the center at Lighthouse Church, she does such a wonderful job," said Beckie Merrick, the eastern Pennsylvania area coordinator for OCC. "She works hard all year round to introduce people to Operation Christmas Child."First Baptist brought in 12,176 shoe boxes in total, with an area covering most of Carbon and Monroe counties. This is, in part, due to the continuous efforts of collection center coordinator Robyn Scales and other volunteers throughout the year, and not just during collection week."We do an outreach at the mall where people could pack a box," Scales said. "We were at the Freedom Festival, too. We got a lot of donations to pack the boxes."Scales says that the project is an effort of love and charity, focusing on making the lives of more than 135 million shoe box recipients in 150 countries a little better, and spreading their personal message."What goes into the box is a lot of fun, but what comes out of it is eternal - it was packed with love, and we want the kids to know the love of Jesus," Scales said.