By Casey Curtis
Leader Staff Writer
Thanks to the caring and giving students at Oxford Middle School, 416 poverty-stricken children around the world will receive a shoe box full of gifts.
This is the fifth year OMS has taken part in Operation Christmas Child, a project through Samaritan’s Purse.
Samaritan’s Purse is a nondenominational evangelical Christian organization that has provided spiritual and physical aid to hurting people around the world since 1970.
Operation Christmas Child was organized locally this year by OMS teachers Judy Royster and Stacy Ruch. Royster said she loves the organization and how it gets students to show their true character.
‘Not only are we helping struggling kids devastated around the world, but we’re also teaching our OMS students the really important characteristics of generosity and compassion,? she said.
Brightly wrapped shoe boxes full of yo-yos, crayons and candy were turned in on school’s collection day Nov, 18. Students could be seen carrying large amounts of boxes to the collection point.
It takes about three weeks to get the project organized, Royster said. Once the shoe boxes are collected, she mails them to the Samaritan’s Purse headquarters in Boone, North Carolina, which then disperses them to other countries.
Royster said hundreds of thousands more boxes are needed this year to reach the children displaced from the gulf hurricanes and the Pakistan earthquake.
A special display case in one hall at OMS features touching letters from children around the world who have received the boxes and photos with their gifts.
‘It almost makes you want to cry,? Royster said.
Royster is proud of the students taking the initiative to help others and knows deep down inside they’re full of compassion.
‘The world needs a lot more of that these days,? she said.