Roxanna Thompson
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 26/05) - The trick with Operation Christmas Child is to pack inventively. Yellowknifers are packing as much as they can into special green and red shoeboxes for delivery to children around the world.

Youeil Tarkalam packs a box for Operation Christmas Child at the Yellowknife Pentecostal Tabernacle. The box will be sent to a child in a developing country. - Roxanna Thompson/NNSL photo

Operation Christmas Child is a program run by Samaritan's Purse. The boxes of goods are delivered to children around the world who are the victims or war, poverty and disease.

"Knowing it makes a difference in the lives of kids who receive the shoeboxes is what keeps me involved," said Judy Reath the organizer in Yellowknife.

Reath has been involved in the program since 1999 when she moved to the city.

Watching the videos of the distribution, you can see the huge amount of joy that it brings the kids, she said.

Last year was the most successful year yet with more than 800 boxes gathered in Yellowknife. Worldwide, more than seven million boxes were packed in 2004 and sent to children in 95 countries.

"I think it's perfect for the kids that need help in the world," said Youeil Tarkalam, a student at J.H. Sissons school, who was packing a box at the Yellowknife Pentecostal Tabernacle on Oct. 15.

The boxes can be filled with toys, school supplies, hard candy, hygienic items like toothbrushes and small articles of clothing like socks and T-shirts. People are asked not to pack war-related items like toy guns and action figures, perishable or breakable items, liquids and medicines.

The drop-off deadline is Nov. 9 at noon in the Salvation Army. The boxes will then be put in crates and shipped by RTL Robinson to Edmonton. The boxes will be processed in Calgary before being sent around the world.