Editor's note: In this 12-part series that runs through Christmas Eve, The Herald-Mail highlights people and organizations who make the holidays brighter for others.
Name: Loretta Tharp
Home: Quincy Township, Pa.
Age: 52
Occupation: Part-time cleaner. Tharp said she works part time so she has a flexible schedule to do volunteer work.
Organization: Samaritan's Purse, Operation Christmas Child
What do you do to make Christmas brighter? Tharp serves as a regional leader for Operation Christmas Child, an organization that provides millions of children with a gift each year.
Overseeing 10 warehouses in the region, Tharp coordinates with churches and individuals from Bedford, Pa., to Martinsburg, W.Va., to collect, pack and ship Christmas boxes. The boxes are collected each November and taken to a national facility, where they are shipped to children all over the world, she said.