Sunday, November 24th the Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes departed Estevan to begin their journey to children across the world this holiday season.

This year Estevan set a goal of 1000 shoe boxes and ultimately surpassed that goal collecting 1102 shoeboxes in total.

With the help of the Estevan Bruins, those boxes were loaded up and sent on their way to the Regina regional center. After Regina, the boxes will make their way to Calgary to go through the processing center. From there the boxes will be sent out to less-fortunate children from all over the world.

Jillian Ursu the logistics coordinator for Operation Christmas Child spoke about what this program means to her.

"I love how we are able to send these shoeboxes to kids across the world and that they come from conditions that are not super great but we are able to bring them joy and love in the form of a shoebox."

Ursu has been with the Operation Christmas Child program for five years now. She added how happy and proud she is that Estevan was able to reach and pass their goal this year.