MENDOTA - During National Volunteer Week (April 15–21), Mendota residents have an opportunity to join a local volunteer team making a difference in children’s lives around the world.

Each year approximately 150,000 U.S. volunteers help transform empty shoeboxes into tangible expressions of God’s love by packing them with fun toys, school supplies and hygiene items. Operation Christmas Child, a project of Samaritan’s Purse, partners with local churches worldwide to deliver these gifts to children suffering from poverty, natural disaster, war, terror, disease and famine. For many of these children, this is the first gift they have ever received.

“National Volunteer Week is a great time to become a part of this international project,” said David Jones who heads up the local Upper Illinois Area Team for Operation Christmas Child. “Joining an Operation Christmas Child Area Team is an amazing way to give back year-round and share God’s love with children in need.”

To learn more about joining the Upper Illinois Area Team Area Team or to apply for leadership opportunities, visit samaritanspurse.org/volunteerwithOCC.

Operation Christmas Child has delivered more than 157 million gift-filled shoeboxes to children in more than 160 countries since 1993. This year, the local Upper Illinois Area Team hopes to collect 20,001 shoebox gifts to contribute to the 2018 global goal of reaching more than 11 million children in need.

Operation Christmas Child is a project of Samaritan’s Purse, an international Christian relief and evangelism organization headed by Franklin Graham.