SAN ANTONIO — The UTSA track & field and cross country programs recently took part in Operation Christmas Child by getting together to purchase, wrap and send gifts off to those kids less fortunate for the holidays.
Operation Christmas Child is a project of the international relief organization, Samaritan's Purse. Its mission is to provide local partners around the world with shoeboxes filled with small toys, hygiene items, and school supplies as a means of reaching out to children in their own communities with the Good News of Jesus Christ. They ship these simple gifts outside the United States to children affected by war, poverty, natural disaster, famine and disease; and to children living on Native American reservations in the U.S.
The program was started in the United Kingdom in 1990 by Dave and Jill Cooke. Three years after this beginning, the Wales-based shoebox gift project merged in a partnership with Samaritan's Purse, allowing it to share 20 years of expertise in relief and aid work with the project and expand the reach of the shoebox gifts to more than 28,000 children that year. Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child has delivered gift-filled shoeboxes to more than 135 million children in more than 150 countries and territories.
Click here for more information about the program.
