PRESS PHOTO BY JIM MARSH

Lily Mohr, of Emmaus, a seventh grader at Lower Macungie Middle School, is one of between 200 and 300 volunteers who gathered at Bethel Bible Fellowship Church, 418 Elm St., Emmaus, last week to pack 8,000 shoeboxes with clothing items, toiletries, school supplies and toys to be distributed to underprivileged children around the world by Samaritan's Purse, an international relief organization led by Dr. Franklin Graham. "Since 1993, more than 100 million boys and girls in over 130 countries have experienced God's love through the power of simple shoebox gifts from Operation Christmas Child," mid-Atlantic Area Coordinator Lynette Dallmann said. "Samaritan's Purse works with local churches and ministry partners to deliver the gifts and share the life-changing experience of Jesus Christ with the children," Dallmann said. Bethel Bible Fellowship Church has for the past four years hosted the packing parties which occur months before Christmas to allow the shoeboxes to be distributed worldwide, Dallmann said.