2008 Christmas Shoeboxes

snoony2

I had the same idea Lizbeth

-have put them into little card making sets as they take up hardly any room in the box - had some clear cellophane envelopes so have put in a few different coloured blank cards and envelopes, some bright sequins & little jewel type things, stickers and also a small pritt stick - am really not sure if its ok to enclose the pritt sticks though?? - I could replace them with those sticky pads though? hmmm...not sure

Ianna

Guys from the link romania website:

It's Not Us!

You may have seen some negative press about certain other shoebox appeals and we would like to assure you that we are an entirely separate organisation, with our own printed material, nationwide network of collectors, etc.
We DO NOT:

• Employ professional fund-raisers with a hard-sell approach to the appeal
• Although we are a Christian organisation we do not add any Christian (or other) literature to the Shoeboxes
• We do not take liquids or anything else out of your boxes. If a box is particularly light we do carefully open it and add a few more items but this is rare as we generally get such good boxes given to us.
• We do not distribute Shoeboxes according to the recipient's ethnic origin or faith, only their need

I won't give to Samaritans purse, not because I have a problem with a christian ethos (loving+giving+being nice in general is great with me) but because I have a problem with this particular organisation and with the boxes being used as tools to bully people into a particular branch of a particular faith. Link romania sound absolutely great though!

Thanks so much for this thread I can't wait to get started on bits for boxes!

Lizbeth

The Salvation Army is collecting toys to distribute to local children aged 0-16 - there'll be distributed through The Salvation Army's own networks, health visitors and social services. They can be dropped into any Superdrug store and other collection points:
http://www1.salvationarmy.org.uk/uki/www_uki.nsf/vw-dynamic-arrays/814A1CBE9BCE07F68025709600380F86

Our local BBC Radio WM used to do a toy appeal - on the net I can see it was in its 22nd year in 2006, but can't find anything about it happening last year or this year.

Actually I've just found that another local radio station did an appeal in 2007 - they launched it on 9th Nov, so I guess we'll hear more about local appeals after halloween/bonfire night.

snoony2

Hi

just wondered if anyone could post photos of the boxes they have done - particularly the family ones for Link Romania

- am wondering whether I can make the teenage girls boxes I did (with the intention of sending with Samaritans purse) into family boxes without spending too much money

- I also don't have a clue how I can fit enough items for a family into one tiny box!! (hats, scarves and gloves take up so much room - do you try to put these in for adults and children?)- I struggle to get the lids on the girl ones I've done!

thanks

Lizbeth

I've nearly finished putting everything together - I'll put a photo up in the next couple of days. They suggest using adult size 8 shoeboxes - I wouldn't have been able to fit my things in anything smaller anyway!

To make it into a family shoebox I've included toiletries (including disposable razors, adult toothbrushes), flannel, dish clothes, plasters, sewing kit, safety pins, string, scissors etc.

I've also included stationery, hardback notepad, playing cards, rubix cube and travel game as they would appeal to all ages. As well as kids' magic gloves I've also put in a men's hat and women's scarf.

lauzjp

Lizbeth wrote: »

I've struggled with getting cheap cuddly toys (for under £1) and small colouring books - I'm going to print sheets off the internet. I'm sure in one of the shoebox threads someone mentioned cbeebies was good for that

Could you use second hand cuddly toys? My local charity shop is always over-run with cuddly toys (and kids toys in general!) and are open to offers for lots!

Lizbeth

RustyFlange wrote: »

If £1 is your limit on the teddies then have a look at asda on the toy aisle. I picked up some lovely ones which I use on my smaller nappy cakes and they are £1 each but sometimes on offer 3 for £2 etc.
Heres a couple of pics.

Thanks I'm just back from Asda with some of these - they're lovely and better quality than most I've seen for that price! They're an ideal size as I'm struggling for space now!

snoony2

Thanks Lizbeth, that's really helpful - I would never have thought of things like safety pins and string - they're great ideas, really useful and won't take up much room.

- look forward to seeing the photo

oh ...just to add - in my local superdrug they had some clearance items thay were selling off around the store (marked with small yellow price labels on the shelf instead of white)...anyway they had wash bags reduced to 10p each - they were plain black but they would fold flat into the bottom of a box and take up hardly any room - might be useful??

mrs_moneyspinner

We send boxes via Romanian Aid Foundation - last time we included some Xmas baubles which they would be unlikely to buy for themselves, loads of sweets and biscuits and small bottle of shampoo, hair bobbles, comb, we saw pictures of the people who got the boxes standing in the snow - it was quite moving.

upferret

Hi, I want to do a box for link romania, I dont mind posting the box but just wondered if anyone knows of any schools/person in the stockport area who are collecting boxes for them? I dont drive so getting it to the nerest person on the link romania site will be a struggle as its not near to me. I would rather spend the postage on extra things to go inside the box if that makes sense? so if theres anyone going past stockport to a collection point who could pick mine up on the way I would be grateful! (its not done yet though so no rush!)

EDIT also, do I need to register on the site before I send my box? Or is that just for people collecting the boxes?