TOYBOX EMPTY: EFFORT AT A STANDSTILL

Toybox reserves have run dry. Jaycees volunteers, intending to spend hours sorting and selecting gifts for needy children, go home early. No toys.

Little children anticipating a personal visit from Santa Claus next week may receive an unpleasant surprise. No toys.

The effort needs your help.

Toybox has more than 200 applications from families and expects at least that many more to arrive before the end of the week. But Toybox has no toys and no money left to provide gifts, not even one toy, to hundreds of children depending on Toybox donations for a Merry Christmas.

Without the donations, some children in this community will wake up Christmas morning to find nothing under the tree. Family finances make buying even a single toy impossible. Toybox is designed to give these children, who have so little, at least one toy.

"The last couple of nights we have been trying to fill bags, but we have just gotten to the point we can't do any more," said Mike Seabaugh, co-chairman with the Jaycees.

Volunteers are making rounds to all the collection points, but the gifts are few and far between.

"We are afraid that everyone is waiting until next week to donate," Seabaugh said.

The trouble volunteers experience is that once toys are donated at drop-off points, it takes at least one day to sort the gifts and then give each present to just the right child.

The Jaycees did have some cash donations early in the campaign, but Seabaugh said the money was spent quickly on toys and warm clothes for the children.

"We can't even go shopping," he said.

Now they wait for individuals to donate.

Veterans at the Missouri Veterans Home are doing their part. Those participating in the woodworking activities at the Veterans Home are making rocking horses, doll high chairs and other wooden toys for Toybox. They began work today and expect to complete it in a few days.

Toybox is a joint project of the Cape Girardeau Jaycees and the Southeast Missourian newspaper.

Toys will be delivered Dec. 17 by a team of Jaycees Santas and helpers.

Applications for Toybox will be accepted at the Salvation Army headquarters, 701 Good Hope, through Friday from 10 a.m. to noon and from 2-4 p.m.

New and unwrapped gifts for children from birth through age 12 may be delivered to any of the following locations: Southeast Missourian, 301 Broadway, Boatmen's Bank Cape Girardeau locations, Capital Bank Cape Girardeau locations, Commerce Bank, Farm and Home Savings Association, Perry Travel Center, Gulliver's Travel Agency, and West Park Mall.

Donations may be mailed to Toybox Trust, P.O. Box 1626, Cape Girardeau, Mo. 63702-1626, or dropped off at the Southeast Missourian.

For more information, call Kim McDowell at 335-6611 during daytime business hours.