A 17-year-old from Landmark has recently returned from Senegal, Africa where he distributed Christmas shoeboxes with Samaritans Purse.

Tyson Plett says he has been a volunteer with Samaritans Purse and the Landmark Shoebox Store for about four years and was accepted to join a group going to Africa to distribute shoeboxes.

"It was so cool just to see how one simple shoebox gift can impact a child's life," recalls Plett. "They get that gift and a lot of them, sometimes they don't know how to react to it. But then there were a lot of them where their faces would just light up with smiles and joy because, wow, they're getting a gift."

Plett notes during the trip they found the need for more boy shoeboxes is great, adding more shoeboxes overall wouldn't go to waste. He says he wants to do more work with Samaritans Purse and go on more missions trips in the future.