Last month students from Steamboat Christian Academy filled 60 shoeboxes with toys, books, crafts and hygiene items as part of a pajama party to support Operation Christmas Child.

“The idea is that every child around the world should be able to experience Christmas,” said Katy Ginn, executive director of Steamboat Christian Academy.

Steamboat Christian Academy partnered with Steamboat Christian Center to host a pajama and prayer party at the school Nov. 21. With Christmas music playing in the background, students packed boxes as part of the program.

“Operation Christmas Child is a program through Samaritan’s Purse, which is an international organization,” said Jen Foss, president of the board at Steamboat Christian Academy. “The goal of Operation Christmas Child is to provide boxes full of goods, toys and hygiene items that will bring kids in impoverished areas across the world joy at Christmas time.”

Foss said organizations, often at churches and schools, can sign up to be a hub or a drop-off center. Families can come get a box at those locations, follow packing instructions and submit payment for shipping before returning the box to the drop-off.

Steamboat Christian Center has been a collection drop-off center for the past six years and collects the boxes locally before transporting them to Denver. The boxes then are shipped all over the world to impoverished communities and remote areas. This year organizations and individuals helped the Yampa Valley fill more than 1,000 boxes as part of the effort.

“I am the drop-off location leader for the Yampa Valley, so I have to go through training to be a part of this,” said Hadley Knaggs, kids pastor at Steamboat Christian Center. “We send out the shoeboxes to other churches around town for people to fill them.”

This year the boxes were collected Nov. 18-24 and are now in the process of being shipped.

“Operation Christmas Child is an amazing organization that not only Steamboat Christian Center gets to take part in, but so does the Steamboat Christian Academy, other churches and other people in our community. It’s an awesome community event that provides a gift for a child who wouldn’t typically get a gift for Christmas,” said Knaggs.

For Foss, packing boxes for Operation Christmas Child has become a family tradition that includes her three sons. She is thrilled that tradition has a place in Steamboat Springs and the Yampa Valley.

“It’s something that we always participate in and we always had even before we moved to Steamboat Springs,” Foss said. “At Steamboat Christian Academy we had all our families bring in donations, and we had a big PJ packing and prayer party. It was fun. We wore Christmas pajamas, and we had Christmas music playing and they packed these boxes full and prepared them so that they would be shipped out to these children around the world.”