It is the sad but inspiring reality of Operation Christmas Child and last week student volunteers from Taree Christian College in Taree rallied to help pack, check and load more than 1600 boxes that will be given to children living in extremely poor communities throughout the world.

Since July Operation Christmas Child has been on the agenda of numerous local schools, community groups and individuals in Taree, Wingham, Harrington, Old Bar, Gloucester and Forster and last week, Taree Baptist Church opened its doors to be used as the collection point to prepare the boxes for loading and transportation to the Sydney warehouse by truck.

For more than five years, Karen Reeman has been promoting and co-ordinating Operation Christmas Child in the Manning Valley and it is with delight that she says "community support and interest in the project just continues to grow".

It is children in Vanuatu, Samoa, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia that will receive one box, once in their lifetime from Australia and within each box Karen says they will find something to love, something for school, something to wear, something to play with, something for personal hygiene and something special.

"It's extremely sad that this box is a once in a lifetime experience for a child, but they are overwhelmed with gratitude and they just love it," Karen explained.

"Every year a DVD is made of when they are handing out the boxes to these children and it is an amazing experience to watch the reactions of children to the gifts in the boxes.

"It is now possible to follow your box, to see where it is sent. You pay an additional fee for that but it amazing to know just where your box has been sent. It is mind-blowing.

"It gives me a great deal of pleasure to be part of such a wonderful project because you know exactly what it is doing for the children, and it is significant because truly, these children get nothing."

Karen explained that each box is checked for content to ensure it is suitable for transportation overseas and that the items are appropriate for the cultural environment of each community.

Operation Christmas Child provides guidelines for content and Karen invites people to consider collecting contents for a box that would be shipped to a child next Christmas.

It is as simple as buying one of each item from the following list between now and October next year.

o Something to love: a small teddy bear, doll or soft toy.

o Something for school: an exercise book, pencil case, pens, pencils, colouring pencils, sharpener, eraser or chalk.

o Something to wear: A t-shirt, shorts, underwear, cap, beanie, sandals or thongs.

o Something to play with: A tennis ball, cars, skipping rope, marbles, musical instrument, yo-yo, slinky or finger puppets.

o Something for personal hygiene: Soap and face washer, toothbrush, hairbrush, comb, hair-clips and scrunchies.

o Something special: A carry bag, sunglasses, bangles, necklaces, craft kits, stickers, note or a photo of yourself.

For further information about Operation Christmas Child visit http://operationchristmaschild.org.au/