91 year old Dorris Higgins has been through a lot over her lifetime and still finds the time and sees the importance to help those in need.  She has an amazing talent for sewing and a huge passion for helping those in need.  As a retired seamstress in Durango, CO, she works year-round making around 60 dresses and 25 totebags for Operation Christmas Child.  Higgins is a firm believer in keeping busy with the activities she enjoys most.  Every fall she donates her hand-sewn dresses and tote bags to be included in some of the gift-filled shoe boxes packed by members of the First United Methodist Church in Durango.  Last year the congregation, along with area-churches, packed some 3,200 shoe boxes with toys, necessity items, school supplies, candy and hand-written notes of encouragement.

"I think about these little girls when I am sewing dresses and how little they have and how much they will enjoy something new," said Higgins who has been a member of the Methodist church for 76 years.  "While I am making them I am praying that they can make a difference in somebody's life."

Operation Christmas Child is a project of the international relief and evangelism organization Samaritan's Purse, headed by Franklin Graham.  The thousands of boxes packed by Higgins and other members of the First United Methodist Church in Durango will contribute to Operation Christmas Child's 2009 goal to collect and deliver some 8 million gift-filled shoe boxes to children in more than 100 countries.  Operation Christmas Child, the world's largest Christmas project, encourages volunteers to fill simple shoe box gifts with toys, necessity items, school supplies, candy and hand-written notes of encouragement.  The gifts are then hand-delivered to children worldwide who are suffering because of natural disaster, disease, war, terrorism, famine and poverty.

For many of these children, the shoe box gift will be the first gift they have ever received, letting them know they are loved and not forgotten.  For more information on how to participate in Operation Christmas Child, call (800) 353-5949 or visit www.samaritanspurse.org.  Shoe box gifts are collected all year.

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