Still time for Christmas Child donations

St. Mary Parish collection center for Operation Christmas Child is close to passing last year’s highest collection total for Louisiana. First Baptist Church in Morgan City is the collection center for the parish.
“We have 4,004 shoeboxes that we’ve collected so far to ship out,” said Joycelyn Slayton church relations coordinator at First Baptist Church. “We still have plenty more people to come in and bring shoeboxes.
“We should exceed what we did last year, which was 5,000.”
Last year, the collection center was recognized for having the highest number of shoeboxes collected in the state.
Slayton expects a delivery drop off of 400 shoeboxes from a local church.
The last day to collect shoeboxes is Monday.
Operation Christmas Child’s goal in 2015 is to collect enough shoebox gifts to reach more than 11 million. The ministry has delivered shoebox gifts to more than 124 million children in over 150 countries and territories since 1993.
There are other options to donate for those unable to do so locally. By using a computer or mobile device, a person can pack a personalized Operation Christmas Child shoebox gift on Samaritan’s Purse website.
The website for information or to donate is www.samaritanspurse.org/occ.