The Hi-Line gives to Operation: Christmas Child

Just before Thanksgiving, every year for the last five, maybe six, he said, George Alberda has backed a large box truck into the parking lot of the Community Alliance Church to load it with boxes that are filled with smaller boxes.

The smaller boxes, shoeboxes in Christmas wrapping, are crammed with things like toys, school supplies, hygiene products, notes of encouragement for poverty-stricken children all over the world.

The holiday season is here, and Operation Christmas Child volunteers like Alberda and his friend and volunteer-in-crime, Joe Braaksmi, were driving around the state picking up shoeboxes at collection points like the one in Havre. The shoeboxes, at the end of their travels, will be unwrapped and enjoyed in time for Christmas by children all over the world. Alberda said the two had future stops at collection centers in Glasgow, Sidney and Billings over the next two days.

Operation Christmas Child was started in 1990 by Samaritan's Purse, a Christian international relief and development organization, with the goal of bringing "joy and hope to needy children around the world through gift-filled shoe boxes and the Good News of God's love," a statement for the project says. The shoeboxes, which are packed according to specific age ranges, have gone to children in more than 130 countries, the project's website says.

National Collection Week for 2016 was Nov. 14-21.

Alberda said he had been volunteering to drive around and pick up boxes for the last 13 years. His family participates as well, he said. Their boxes were on a truck in Bozeman somewhere.

Alberda said he expected to have the truck full by the end of the "milk run," as he called the pick-up drive. Some years, the truck is fuller than others, he added.

The way Alberda sees it, he volunteers because he's following instructions.

"We're supposed to be like God, and God loves everybody and He says to be like Him, and so we love these kids, and because of His love, we love them," he said. "And therefore we do this."

Marit Ita is the project coordinator for the Havre collection point. She said Community Alliance Church has been a collection center, which is intended to make giving easier, for over 12 years.

The website for the project also makes it possible for people to buy and donate a shoebox without ever having to go to a collection point, or a store.

"Our church became involved when there was just enough people in the community to be a collection center. We're a collection center for the Hi-Line. The next closest one is Great Falls. They approached us to be a collection center," she said.

The Sunday evening before Monday's pickup, she was in the church sanctuary, along with other volunteers. One person was filling the big boxes and taping them shut. And once a box was filled with shoeboxes, it was moved by another volunteer to a room closer to the entrance, where it was stacked with other similar boxes.

Ita said the number of donated shoeboxes has been increasing each year. Last year, people on the Hi-Line packed 427 boxes - people and churches from as far as

Malta and as south as Big Sandy, she said.

This year, Ita said Wednesday, 487 boxes had been donated by people of the Hi-Line, 50 more than last year.

For Ita, Operation Christmas Child is not just about coordinating the collection efforts. She said the Itas started packing after she saw an advertisement about it on TV. Afterward, they began doing the project with their young children.

"Obviously, there's all kinds of learning opportunities for them, first of all, to think about somebody else, but then to have the joy of picking a gift out for somebody," Ita said. "Especially if it's somebody their own age, because they can choose what age."

Ita's kids even wrote letters to some of the children around the world receiving the boxes, she said.

Julie Siemens was one of the volunteers. She was writing down the names of people who came in through the door to donate and giving them a sticker and a shirt.

Siemens said she has three little boys, and the project is a good way for them to learn about giving and the needs of others - her family also takes part.

"We went to Kmart and we got some hygiene products, we picked out a little toy, a stuffed animal, socks and shirts, some little toys the little boys will like, hopefully," Siemens said. "We stuffed it all into a box - it's very hard to get all that little stuff into a box."

The Siemenses have been taking part in the project for three years, she said. The fun part, she added, is tracking the shoebox online. Last year, she said, the shoebox went to South America.

Katie Housel walked in with her 10-year-old boy, Robert, to donate a shoebox. Among the things she packed in the box were a yoyo, a toothbrush and some small toys. She said this was the second year they've donated to Operation Christmas Child.

Robert was happy, he said, to partake.

"I'm glad that we're doing something," Robert said.