Thousands of shoe boxes are being filled throughout West Virginia.

The dropoff period for box donations for this year's Operation Christmas Child effort is scheduled to run from November 16th through November 23rd.

The Operation Christmas Child National Spokesperson is Mary Damron.  She is from Wyoming County and says West Virginians are givers.  "West Virginia is the third leading state, as far as population wise, for giving shoe boxes."

Damron started the effort back in 1993.

She was watching news reports out of Bosnia and became especially concerned about the children there, children growing up in a war.  She happened to hear a few minutes with Franklin Graham, Billy Graham's son, about a first year shoe box donation effort he was putting together for kids there.

She called on her neighbors to help and gathered 1,258 shoe boxes in 13 days in Southern West Virginia.  She took the boxes to Graham who invited her to Bosnia.

Since then, she's visited 34 countries bringing shoe boxes full of donations through Operation Christmas Child.

"We ask for toys," she says of what's inside the boxes.  "We really want a stuffed animal or a baby doll or something the children can hold on to.  A lot of these children don't have parents.  We give them out to children in orphanages, on the streets."

Anyone can be involved, she says.  All you need is a shoe box and the will to fill it.

"It doesn't matter if you're eight years old or you're 80.  It doesn't matter if you're rich or you're poor.  This is something we all can do."

You can find out more about Operation Christmas Child, including the nearest drop off point, by calling 1-800-353-5949 or by going to www.samaritanspurse.org.