STRUGGLING MOTHER DEPENDS ON YOUR HELP

She faces the plight of many mothers today: a single-parent household and a father who is only sporadically supportive.

She has a full-time job, and she still has to cook, clean, and help one son with his homework while she feeds or changes her younger son when she gets home.

She is making it, if just barely, and she is trying to teach her two young sons how to be men without having a man in the house.

This mother is trying to make Christmas memorable for her children, but she needs help. "It's hard when you know they want the tree, and the stockings, and everything else they associate with Christmas," she said. "I'm trying, but I cannot do it all."

She would like any toys and games for boys under 8. They also like all kinds of balls, she wrote.

Toybox, in its 22nd year, is co-sponsored by the Cape Girardeau Jaycees and the Southeast Missourian. The program provides Christmas presents to 1,200 children each year.

All donations will be used to buy gifts for children through the age of 12 who otherwise might not receive Christmas gifts.

Parents wishing to apply should take proof of residency and a Social Security card for each person who lives at the address to the Salvation Army, 701 Good Hope, by Friday.

New, unwrapped toys and gifts may be delivered to the Southeast Missourian office or area Drop-off points at West Park Mall, Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems, Boatmen's Bank, Gulliver's Travel Agency, Mercantile Bank, Union Planters Bank, AAA Travel Agency, The First National Bank, Commerce Bank and Sanders True Value Hardware.

Gifts will be delivered by a team of Jaycee Santas on Dec. 19.

Cash contributions may be mailed to Toybox Trust, P.O. Box 4, Cape Girardeau, Mo., 63702-0004.