LISBON — While most people in the U.S. are preparing for holiday activities, local volunteers with Operation Christmas Child — the world’s largest Christmas project of its kind — are filling shoe box gifts with toys, school supplies and hygiene items for needy children overseas.

This year-round project of international relief aid organization Samaritan’s Purse, headed by Franklin Graham, is ramping up as local businesses, churches and community groups prepare to collect 2,185 gift-filled shoe boxes during National Collection Week, Nov. 12 to 19.

Anyone can drop off a packed shoe box at a collection site. Then, using whatever means necessary — trucks, trains, boats, bikes and even elephants — the shoe box gifts will be hand-delivered to hurting children in 100 countries around the world.

Lisbon Falls Church of Nazarene, 184 Main St., will be collecting boxes: Nov. 12, noon to 2 p.m.; Nov. 13, 4 to 7 p.m.; Wednesday, 4:30 to 7:30 p.m.; Thursday, 6 to 9 p.m.; Nov. 16, 5 to 8 p.m.; Nov. 17, 9 a.m. to noon; Nov. 18, 1 to 3 p.m.; and Nov. 19, 9 a.m. to noon.

For more information, call the church at 353-5949.

Additional local collection sites can be found using the online ZIP Code locator at www.samaritanspurse.org.