The most desired donations include hand tools -- such as machetes, hammers, saws and hatchets -- as well as fishing equipment and snorkeling gear, Schulz wrote.
Non-perishable food is welcome, he said, but isolated islanders can do much more with tools.
"They can't go down to Home Depot and purchase a screwdriver or hatchet, because that doesn't exist there," Schulz said. "But with fishing equipment, they can feed themselves throughout the year, and a hatchet is going to last a year or more, while a bag of rice, depending on the size, will last a couple of months, at most."
Like they do every year, airmen from Yokota Air Base in Japan will come to Guam in December to parachute the collected gifts throughout the isolated islands of Micronesia.
The donation boxes will stay in place until Dec. 8 and flights are expected to run from Dec. 13 to 17.
Hopefully, donation boxes will collect enough gifts to fill 60 pallets, which the Air Force plans to deliver to about 50 islands spread throughout Yap, Chuuk, Palau and other Micronesian islands, Schulz said.
Few other holiday charities reach so many, spread so far, he said.
"The Christmas Drop actually has the widest impact in terms of area and number of people," Schulz said. "There are approximately 30,000 to 35,000 people Operation Christmas Drop touches every year."
In past years, Air Force officials have struggled to find enough cardboard boxes and parachutes to deliver every gift, but this year, they have plenty of both, so the only limiting factor would be if they don't collect enough donations, Schulz said.
According to Pacific Daily News files, this Christmas tradition began in 1952 when residents on Kapingamarangi, a tiny island in Pohnpei, waved to a bomber that had been converted to a weather plane as it flew overhead, according to an Air Force news release. The crew gathered all the supplies they could and dropped the goods to the islanders.
This year's drop will be larger than last year's, and almost as large as the drop in 2008, which was the largest ever, Schulz said.
