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WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Operation Christmas Child is celebrating their 20th year.

The Samaritan’s Purse project helps send shoeboxes filled with toys and toiletries to children in some of the poorest countries in the world.

“To me it’s the greatest children’s project around because it is so pure,” said Danny Spainhour, with Pinedale Christian Church, who has been a part of OCC from the beginning even helping hand deliver boxes to children in Kosovo and the Middle East. “We have been at a village where the village had been bombed out. We were able to come in and tell them there is hope there is life ahead.”

The shoebox project has also helped teach children here at home about sharing love and giving.

“I want to fill up my daddy’s truck,” said 6-year-old Elayna Bonnett.

Bonnett and her family fill boxes each year and she is well on her way to reaching her goal with more than 30 boxes already pledged from friends and family.

“Big blessing, very big blessing,” said Kristie Bonnett, Elayna’s mom. “She’s got a very big heart and I’m very proud of her.”

Operation Christmas Children first filled around 28,000 shoeboxes in 1993. Last year, the project filled around 9 million. To learn how you can help log on to www.samaritanspurse.org.