Each year thousands of Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes are sent all around the world from Canada, and many from here in Moose Jaw. One local woman however, is making sure she leaves her mark on each box that leaves the friendly city.

Gail Fenwick repairs and refurbishes stuffed animals, which she sends away in the shoe boxes. Fenwick says shes been able to send hundreds of stuffed toys away each year;

"I average around 500 every year. One year I had 1,200 and this year I have 900. It adds up, I'm just slightly under 11,000 in total and I've been doing it for 16 years now."

Fenwick says she works about 8 hours a week on the toys, and that it all started after seeing so many stuffed toys go to waste while visiting yard sales with her mother;

"Every yard sale I would see tons of stuffed animals at everybody's sale, people just trying to get rid of them. I kept thinking 'theres got to be a need somewhere for kids who dont have these things, to access to them'."

Operation Christmas Child boxes were shipped out of Moose Jaw to Calgary last week, where they will be organized, sorted, and sent to children around the world.