Volunteers with "Operation Christmas Child" in High River spent the evening of Friday, November 17, getting the boxes ready to be shipped out to kids in need around the world.

Organizer Jim Graham says they're taking boxes from all around the Foothills and packing them into bigger boxes for shipping.

"We have boxes here from several of the schools, Spitzee, Senator Riley. The High River Baptist Church, the Full Gospel's aren't over here yet, and we have some from some outlying churches in Vulcan and Nanton."

In all Graham figures they received around 800 to a thousand boxes this year, with most destined for children in places like Costa Rica and the Ukraine.

High River Operation Christmas Child Collection Coordinator Jim Graham gives the troops a pep talk before they start packing the big boxes that'll be shipped around the world.

Graham shows off some the items people packed into tool boxes. Graham says oversize boxes like this make them tougher to ship, but they're happy to get them and they know they'll be well received.

Volunteer Traci Steiner gets in some heavy lifting as she helps out filling the big boxes with little ones for their long trip to needy kids around the world as part of Operation Christmas Child.