HELPERS MAKE LAST PLANS FOR TOYBOX

Volunteers hurried between rows of simple black trash bags Sunday, as they made 11th-hour preparation for Tuesday's Toybox deliveries.

The bags were full of new toys for 400 Cape Girardeau families, who will receive the gifts this Christmas thanks to the generosity of others.

Toybox volunteers will continue to collect items today, which will fill in any late gaps and make delivery a success.

But it takes more than toys to make a successful Toybox delivery day. The 18 vans have to move up and down streets beginning at 7 p.m., spending no more than five minutes at each house so that everything will be delivered by 9.

The process begins in a vacant storefront on Kingshighway, where volunteers number each bag.

One, a retired U.S. Postal Service employee, designed routes so that each of the 18 vans that will run Tuesday will move quickly through Cape Girardeau, avoiding backtracking.

The bags are lined up in the storefront so they can be loaded in sequence on the vans. Each van carries a driver, a Santa Claus and at least one elf.

About 80 people will work to complete the job.

"The last couple of days have been pretty hectic as we push to finish filling the orders," Karen Byrum, co-chairwoman of the Jaycees Toybox effort, said. "We try to wait until the last minute so we can get all the donations."

Scott McClanahan, who was last year's chairman, said recipients should be at home between 7 and 9 Tuesday with their porch lights on and their house numbers clearly marked.

Anyone not at home during that time can pick up their bags Wednesday at the Southeast Missourian.

"People love to go on the deliveries that night," McClanahan said. "We recruit some Jaycees through this. They say it is the neatest project we do all year."