SEVEN of Newcastle United's first team squad were on hand at St. James' Park earlier this week to support Operation Christmas Child's Shoebox Appeal.
Alan Shearer, Shay Given, Laurent Robert, Lomana LuaLua, Jermaine Jenas, Shola Ameobi and Olivier Bernard were all happy to donate their shoeboxes to the appeal.

The children's gift project, Operation Christmas Child, has been running for 12 years but as its activities expanded, and in order to move forward, it merged in 1994 with Samaritan's Purse, an international non-denominational Christian Aid Charity.

During its existence Operation Christmas Child has sent out over 13 million gift-filled shoeboxes worldwide.

A lot of the children the appeal helps are homeless orphans, some are casualties of civil war but they all have one thing in common - they have no presents to look forward to this Christmas.

The Operation Christmas Child project isn't simply about the things that are inside the shoebox, more importantly it tells those children that someone out there cares for them enough to send them a gift.

Samaritan's Purse would also like to thank the players of Newcastle United for their tremendous support of the appeal, their contribution is greatly appreciated by everyone who is involved with the project.
Our picture shows Alan Shearer and Shay Given supporting the project by donating their shoebox to the appeal.