Operation Christmas Child sets local record

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Photo courtesy Nancy Burke Operation Christmas Child helpers Gayle Broadbent, Lynell Wiggers, Travis and Kristi Baisdon, Laura Jenkins and Nancy Burke work to process Operation Christmas Child boxes from Pagosa Bible Church. The program set a local record with the number of boxes collected this year. Photo courtesy Nancy Burke
Operation Christmas Child helpers Gayle Broadbent, Lynell Wiggers, Travis and Kristi Baisdon, Laura Jenkins and Nancy Burke work to process Operation Christmas Child boxes from Pagosa Bible Church. The program set a local record with the number of boxes collected this year.

By Nancy Burke

Special to The PREVIEW

All of us at the relay center for Operation Christmas Child rejoiced as we passed our record for the number of boxes collected in Pagosa Springs since 2002. Last year, we collected 734 boxes and, in 2015, we received 957 packed boxes — a 30-percent increase.

Many new helping hands at the local churches brought fresh enthusiasm and dedication to making Operation Christmas Child a big success in Pagosa Springs.

The collection center in Durango (for the Four Corners area) sent us many encouraging stories from Operation Christmas Child in our four-state area.

Don, from the Denver processing center, shared the following story: “A small church outside Denver in Bennett, Colo., that has a total of 18 people in its congregation (15 adults and 3 kids), dropped off their shoe boxes. That little church packed 354 shoe boxes and all of them had a Follow Your Box label.

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