A lot of good can be packed into one small shoebox.

Generous Interior residents donated 5,148 jam-packed shoeboxes this week to an annual program called Operation Christmas Child, a project under the umbrella of a ministry called Samaritan’s Purse. Those boxes, collected at First Baptist Church in Fairbanks are now on their way to a national distribution center.

Their final destination? Children in need all over the world.

The project began in 1993 and targeted children in war-torn Bosnia. It expanded from there. As of 2024, 31 years later, a total of 232 million shoeboxes have been delivered to children in more than 170 countries/territories, including “some very hard to reach places,” noted volunteer Callie Underwood in Fairbanks.

Here’s how it works: every participant gets a shoebox

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