A few years ago my sister told us of "Operation Christmas Child" and that if we would be willing to buy the items she would drop the boxes off at her church. And now every Halloween we start saving candy, and looking for cute socks and pads to paper and other goodies to add to our boxes. I love the idea of the boxes, that we can be a blessing and give a child hope with something as simple as a shoe box. I have already started buying things for the boxes, and am hoping that Monkey #1 will write a letter to tuck into them this year.
    Some ideas for your boxes: At Target they have Crayola crayons for 24 cents a pack, and Paper mate pens on sale for 50 cents (use this coupon to get them free! ) after Halloween buy a bag of dum dum's for cheap and use a Ziploc baggie to divvy them up, last year I went to Michaels and got a school supply kit from the $1 spot that had a pad of paper, and eraser, pencils and a pencil bag all for $1! If you sign up for freebies save some of them and add them to your boxes.
   To read an awesome story of just how much the shoe boxes can impact a child's life head over here to read Oxana's story.