National collection week is coming to a close this weekend for the Operation Christmas child shoe box initiative created by the Samaritans Purse.

District Coordinator, Lynette Harris, said this once a year fundraiser makes a big difference in many peoples lives.

"I've traveled with people who have received boxes when they were younger and one said 'I used to receive an orange, maybe once a year as a special gift'. A lot of these countries don't even know what Christmas is, throughout the year to be able to distributions in 15 countries... that's how many Canada sends to and to be able to send people on trips. It's pretty incredible," said Harris.

One local coordinator, Mary Ellen Willis, has been working with Operation Christmas Child for 8 years and went to deliver shoe boxes last year.

"I was blessed to be able to Costa Rica and hand out boxes to children down there, it just blows your mind the difference it makes in these kids lives. We went to 14 different place with about 150 boxes for each place. The kids just come from out of nowhere, your driving by plantations and what not and not seeing any houses, then all of a sudden you come to a little church or a little school and these 150 kids are waiting there," described Willis.

Harris went on to say that the children receiving these shoe boxes have typically gone through something traumatic or live somewhere unsafe.

"(These boxes help) the kids forget about their circumstances. A lot of these countries that were going to are in the middle of war and some of these kids are fleeing for their lives. They're in these camps because they can't go home, (maybe) their parents have been killed, you name it... these kids are going through it. To be able to hand them a box and to just give them that hope and that joy, to take their minds away from all their troubles."

There's a handful of locations in Moose Jaw where you can still pick up a box in time, to fill and drop off at the Alliance Church this weekend.