TOY BOX BEGINS CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN

The countdown is on.

Toy Box volunteers will be hard at work tonight organizing routes for Thursday night's deliveries. An estimated 1,000 to 1,200 underprivileged children in Cape Girardeau will benefit from the toy drive, which is sponsored by the Cape Girardeau Jaycees and the Southeast Missourian.

"We're getting close," said Mike Seabaugh, Jaycees co-chair for the toy drive. "We've got about 50 more bags to fill and we're done."

Donations will be accepted "through Christmas," he said. Toys and donations that aren't used this year will be held over for next year's toy drive, Seabaugh said.

"Right now, we're pretty well wiped out of everything," he said Tuesday. "We could still use more money and more toys. We're going to try to get by without doing any more shopping, but we'll have to wait and see how today's donations go."

This year's drive is going "pretty well, I think," Seabaugh said.

New, unwrapped toys may be dropped off at Boatmen's Bank, Capital Bank, Coldwell Banker, Gulliver's Travels, Commerce Bank, Mercantile Bank, First National Bank, Chuck E. Cheese's, West Park Mall or the Southeast Missourian.

Donations may be sent to Toy Box Trust, P.O. Box 4, Cape Girardeau, Mo., 63702-0004.

Jaycees Santas and elves will deliver toys to children's homes between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. Thursday.