Cape Girardeau Jaycee Santas and elves are going through an identity crisis: They need to see more Toybox donations to feel useful.
Jaycees co-chairmen Karen Byrum and Jackie Ahrens said donations for Toybox are noticeably few and far between, an ominous sign just 13 days before the scheduled delivery date.
Toybox is a joint project of the Cape Girardeau Jaycees and Southeast Missourian, whose mission is to provide toys for needy children 12 years of age and younger. The project is limited to children living in the city of Cape Girardeau.
"So far there just haven't been many donations," Byrum said. "We really need a big push from now until Dec. 19 if we hope to fill all the orders we have this year."
The Jaycees have plenty of volunteers to sort out the toys. But so far there hasn't been enough work to go around.
"The critical time is the next two weeks," Ahrens said. "It really takes two weeks to sort the toys and get them ready for delivery. The sooner we can get the toys, the easier it will be to determine how much more and what kind we'll need to get at the end."
There is a dire need for some of the popular toys. "Power Rangers, Easy Bake ovens, Barbie dolls, board games and Barney dolls have become hot items this Christmas," Byrum said. "Anyone who can donate these toys or any other kind of toy would be doing a good deed for a worthy cause."
Byrum said over 260 applications have been turned in to the Salvation Army thus far. "There's still a few days left for applications to be filled out, so we anticipate that we'll need to come up with a lot more toys to give every needy kid a Christmas that otherwise would not be possible."
Applications are being accepted at the Salvation Army from 10 a.m. to noon and fro 2 to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday until Dec. 9.
New, unwrapped toys may be delivered to the Southeast Missourian, 301 Broadway, or to the following Toybox collection sites : West Park Mall, Boatmen's Bank, Capital Bank, Perry Travel Center, Gulliver's Travel Agency, AmeriFirst Bank, Commerce Bank, Roosevelt Bank and Mercantile Bank.
Gifts and contributions may be mailed to Toybox Trust, P.O. Box 4, Cape Girardeau, Mo., 63702-0004.
Connect with the Southeast Missourian Newsroom:
For corrections to this story or other insights for the editor, click here. To submit a letter to the editor, click here. To learn about the Southeast Missourian’s AI Policy, click here.