Daniel Williams/Collegian
Junior Ryan Mauldin stands behind boxes collected for needy kids.
The Operation Christmas Child drive shoed in an early holiday season for those who contributed to this year’s outreach. Sixty-four of the 500 shoeboxes collected from the Hillsdale community were provided by Hillsdale College students; the boxes were filled with toys, hygiene products, candy and school supplies for children in need around the world.
Operation Christmas Child is a project of Samaritan’s Purse, an international Christian organization that has been reaching out to victims of war, poverty, natural disasters, disease and famine since its founding in 1970.
Under the current leadership of evangelist Franklin Graham, Samaritan’s Purse has widened its mission to include projects like Operation Christmas Child to brighten the holiday season for children around the world and spread the Christian message to those in desperate situations.
The organization relies on about 70,000 volunteers every year to help promote the mission and set up collection sites.
Junior Ryan Mauldin took charge of the Hillsdale campus drive this year after the project was abandoned by students in the recent past.
“The last three years no one did it,” he said. “I had always done it at home and I missed doing it, so I decided to take it upon myself to bring it back to campus.”
Ryan was able to summon the help of six other Hillsdale students to organize the drive and inform the student body.
For almost three weeks volunteers sat outside the Curtiss Memorial Dining Hall during lunch to promote the operation and start collecting the boxes.
Ryan said he was pleased with the turnout.
“I thought it was a great start for a campus drive,” he said.
Those who participated in the project were responsible for filling a shoebox with items that corresponded to the age and gender of the child selected. If the sender chose, he or she could also send an address to the child so the child can write a letter back.
The boxes are distributed around the world in time to be opened on Christmas Day.
Junior Jack Nehlson, one of the six students to volunteer with Ryan, received a letter from a recipient in Sri Lanka earlier this semester.
Nehlson, who has been involved with Operation Christmas Child in the past, said he thinks the Samaritan’s Purse promotes a message of hope.
“It is a great ministry and I was thrilled to be a part of it,” he said. “A lot of children are going to be really happy this year.”