TOYBOX FACES TOUGH CHOICES: WHICH KIDS WILL HAVE NO TOYS?

Toybox coordinators are about to face a tough choice: which of the more than 1,000 children depending on Toybox for their Christmas gift this year won't get a single toy.

Jessica would like a Barbie doll. Austin wants a soccer ball. Christina needs a new winter coat. David wants a fire engine.

The list goes on and on. Who should be left out?

Toybox organizers hope that the community will respond to the Christmas wishes of these young people.

For many, the gifts delivered to their doors by Santa Claus himself through Toybox are the only presents they will receive. Their parents cannot afford to purchase toys.

Time is running short for this year's campaign. Toys and money are running even shorter. The volunteers on hand to select toys for each child have nothing to do. They are waiting for gifts to be donated; they are waiting for you to remember a needy child this Christmas.

Toybox is sponsored by the Cape Girardeau Jaycees and the Southeast Missourian newspaper as a way to bring holiday joy to the city's neediest children.

If you have been thinking of giving, now is the time. Your donation will mean a happy Christmas for one more child. Please help.

Toybox gifts will be delivered by a team of Jaycees Santas on Dec. 19.

Donations of new, unwrapped toys are needed as soon as possible. Also, donations of new coats, mittens, hats and warm clothes are needed.

Gifts may be dropped off at the Southeast Missourian, 301 Broadway; West Park Mall; Capital Bank; AmeriFirst Bank; Farm and Home Savings Association; Gulliver's Travel Agency; and Perry Travel Center.

Cash gifts may be sent to Toybox, P.O. Box 699, Cape Girardeau, Mo. 63701.

For more information, call Kim McDowell at 335-6611.