Shoe Boxes of Gifts Get Send-Off for Children in Troubled Lands : Students contribute toys in ‘Operation Christmas Child’ effort for Bosnia, Rwanda.

Braving the drizzle at Long Beach Airport on Wednesday, schoolchildren watched workers load about 70,000 shoe boxes filled with toys onto a cargo plane headed for Bosnia, Rwanda and other war-torn areas, where children with a lot more than bad weather on their minds will receive the gifts.

“I feel sorry for them,” said 9-year-old Elizabeth Deboer, whose third-grade class from Riverside’s Harvest Christian School trekked to the airport to make sure the personalized boxes they gathered earlier this month made it to the plane safely.

“Some of those kids’ parents died or were taken prisoner during the war,” she said. “I heard they have to sleep in chairs.”

In the third year of a worldwide relief program called “Operation Christmas Child,” Elizabeth and thousands of other children and adults nationwide filled shoe boxes with dolls, baseball cards, clothes and toothbrushes in the hopes of providing holiday cheer to children living in troubled areas.

The program is coordinated by a Christian philanthropic agency called “Samaritan’s Purse.”

Since its start in 1993, “Operation Christmas Child” has expanded from the agency’s North Carolina headquarters to an annual event in several states and in parts of England.

About 28,000 boxes were sent during its first year, and this year agency coordinators expect more than 500,000 boxes to reach children in places like Bosnia, Rwanda, Slovenia, Moscow and Siberia.

The 70,000 boxes loaded at the Long Beach airport were collected from schools and churches throughout California and other western states, program officials said.

The other boxes were loaded onto similar cargo planes in four different regions of the country.

“To a child in Bosnia, receiving something like this can make all the difference in the world,” Greg Laurie, a board member of Samaritan’s Purse, said during a news conference Wednesday.

Gesturing toward the huge Russian cargo plane behind him, which was once used by the Soviet military to transfer ICBM missiles, Laurie added: “I can’t think of a better use for an airplane this size.” As planes buzzed by on their way out of Long Beach, Laurie read a letter from a 9-year--old boy in Bosnia who wrote to a North Carolina family after receiving a gift last year.

“Thank you for your presents,” the letter said. “How is it in America? There are bombs falling here every day. My father was taken prisoner, but now he is back home.

“The hat and scarf you sent keep me very warm,” the letter continued. “And, my sister always wanted a doll. Now she has one.”

Such remarks have motivated the third-grade students from Harvest Christian School to work hard on their boxes.

“We need to cheer them up,” said 9-year-old Kyle Debaca, who wrapped his box in holiday paper and included a portrait of his family and a mailing address inside to encourage a response.

“That’s what Christmas is all about: giving and sharing our feelings. It’ll make them happy.”

But Ben Jackman, 11, was more realistic about the impact his gift will have.

“I just hope it will make them forget what they’re going through for a little while.”