TOYBOX NEEDS YOUR HELP; ONLY HALF OF ORDERS FILLED THUS FAR

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He just didn't make it to our house this Christmas.

Unless Toybox donations pick up in a hurry, that conversation and others like it will take place in many Cape Girardeau homes this Christmas.

Toybox co-chairperson Kerry Reeves said that with only seven days left before the Dec. 19 delivery date, volunteers have run out of toys to give the more than 420 families that applied for assistance this year. "We're only about half way to having the orders filled," Reeves said.

That means more than 600 needy children will be left without Christmas this year unless Toybox is flooded with donations before Monday, which is when volunteers need to begin getting the final gifts packed.

Toybox recipients include children with physical and emotional problems who need a good Christmas, not to mention the many children who will have only one parent with them due to death, divorce or desertion.

Every year volunteers work to make sure each eligible child receives at least one Christmas gift from their wish list. The volunteers spend long hours locating and separating gifts collected in a large warehouse so that a team of Jaycees dressed as Santa may deliver them.

Unfortunately, this year the warehouse is nearly empty. "We're out of toys," said Reeves.

Many of the children requested a special gift, but a large number of them said that anything would be fine. In this day of child-centered advertising, it is almost unbelievable and most definitely a sobering fact that a child would not have at least one specific gift on his or her wish list.

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.

Toys particularly are needed because donations are down this year while the number of applications is the same or more than previous years.

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 Jaycees Santas on Dec. 19.

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