The Valley Evangelical Free Church was the location for a lunch on Saturday provided for the Bikers For Christ out of Salt Lake City, Utah.

The Bikers help support and promote the Operation Christmas Child project, a ministry of Samaritan's Purse. They traveled to various locations in Wyoming on Saturday, including Kemmerer and Bridger Valley.

The nationwide OCC project seeks to collect millions of wrapped shoe boxes filled with small toys, prizes and candies, and when all the boxes are collected, they are dispersed to all parts of the globe to children who otherwise would have no Christmas.

Nelson and Megan Smith, pictured kneeling, have headed up the local project for the past two years, originally sponsored by Maranatha Christian Fellowship, and last year, sponsored by the Valley Evangelical Free Church. The Smiths oversee the collection of boxes donated by locals and then the boxes are delivered to Calvary Chapel in Salt Lake City for sorting and further distribution onto trucks. Last year, the Smiths, through the E-Free Church collected over 125 local boxes.

This year's campaign will start up in November with collection dates just before Thanksgiving.

GAZETTE PHOTO/Lester Fatheree

For the complete article see the 07-29-2010 issue.

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