Mathews Elementary School teacher Amy Ashberry organized the 4th annual Christmas in July event on July 16, with youngsters spending a day with Ashberry, all with the goal of creating and packing Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. Operation Christmas Child, a project of international relief organization Samaritan’s Purse, provides local partners around the globe with millions of shoeboxes filled with small toys, hygiene items and school supplies as a means of reaching out to children in their own communities “with the Good News of Jesus Christ,” according to the organization’s website. The local youth took Ashberry’s bus to the Dollar Tree in Gloucester to buy shoebox items, picked up pizzas from Little Caesars, went to Beaverdam Park to eat and play, and came back to Mathews to pack boxes. “Several kind people in Dollar Tree gave us donations, and Little Caesars gave us free cookies when they heard what we were doing with so many pizzas,” Ashberry said. The children packed close to ...