Operation Christmas Child has another successful year

The numbers are in; last month, St. John’s Lutheran Church in Kasson collected 784 shoe boxes in an effort to make a difference this Christmas. 
Each year St. John’s along with various other locations throughout the county and the nation collect shoe boxes and fill them with gifts, school supplies and personal items that are distributed to children worldwide through Operation Christmas Child, a project of Samaritan’s Purse. 
This was the church’s second year participating in the program. Last year the group packed 120 boxes and this year they far surpassed their goal of 500 boxes. 
It took 18 volunteers and approximately 90 hours of work over National Collection week (Nov. 16-23) to pack the boxes. The collection center in Rochester collected 12,879 shoe boxes. St. John’s had 23 groups/individuals drop off shoeboxes. 
“We are already excited about next year and are making contacts in the community to expand our efforts so that this just keeps growing every year,” said Tanya Young, coordinator for the program at St. John’s. 
Young added that many of the people she spoke with were excited to have a drop off location in Kasson because it meant less driving for them.