Leader staff

At its peak, the Operation Christmas Child program in Slave Lake had 500 or more shoeboxes full of useful gifts being shipped off to less fortunate families in foreign countries.

It suffered a loss of momentum somewhere along the way, and last year was down to only 121 boxes.

This year’s total was 169 boxes, according to Patsy Hartman, one of the organizers.

Hartman says not as many groups are involved in supporting the program as in years past. For example, just one school took part this year; that was St. Mary of the Lake.

“But we’re moving in the right direction,” she says.

Operation Christmas Child is run by a Christian organization called Samaritan’s Purse. According to information on its website, since 1993, over 198 million children in 170 countries and territories have received one of the Operation Christmas Child boxes.

It’s too late to participate this year. Delivery of the boxes to Edmonton happens in the third week of November. They then go to a processing facility in Calgary, to be checked for safety, and then are shipped off to wherever they go (see map).

Will it happen again in Slave Lake in 2023?

“Oh yeah!” says Hartman. “We’re going to keep doing it.”