Charity Shoe Boxes

Old_Joe

:T :T :T Thanks to you Haribo, catkins and scuzz for your advice. - Much appreciated.

Yes, earthmother, I confirm those we did before Christmas and was for Samaratins Purse.
Felt that we'd try to spread the cost of this year's boxes over a longer period of time to hopefully make up many more that last year.;)

hogshead

I picked up a hat,scarf & thermo glove set in Matalan was £5 reduced to $2.50 but went through @ 75% off so only £1.25. An absolute bargain BUT the hat is not very generous ( age 4-7 yrs ) or my lad has a big head. Def worth it for the gloves alone though.
We too have done these boxes in the past but ashamedly we too missed the postal date this year.
You will find most schools, newspaper offices act as collection points for these. You need to mark the gender & age group the box is suitable for as well as enclose a cheque/PO for £2 to cover shipping ( well the ones we do at our school ask for this )
Collect almost anything. The £1 shop are great for toothbrushes/paste, hairbrush sets, small make up sets, colouring/stationary gifts, socks.

Some groups encourage you to perhaps pop in a card with maybe a pic to show the recipient who sent the parcel.

Most will let you know waht is NOT suitable but common sense prevails here, ie: no war toys, books with words ( non english children reading recipients ) liquids can spoil parcels ( includes bubbles too :-( )

Basically if you see something cheap bag it as it'll surely come in useful.
Oh & teenagers, esp boys are mostly the ones forgotten so try & aim to these age groups if you can.

sunshine6650

Im going to do this as well1 there are lots of things you can put in. You could also do it for oler people, maybe a nice scarf, pack cards, magnifying glass, nice mug etc..some people have no family at all..we are all lucky.

Im going to do the one for kids tho. Im not sure where you send or take them to tho.

SugarSpun

Does anyone know if you can deliver these well before the posting deadline?

I'm emigrating in March but would like to do some shoeboxes in the meantime.

Highland_Lass_2

The school I work in collects in shoeboxes and donates to this appeal. Hope it helps someone.

http://www.shoeboxappeal.org/page.cfm?id=40

play2day

With this charity you send a box to a family and not to a single child.
http://www.linkromania.co.uk/
They do not add any religeous materials to the box, in fact you seal it shut before you leave it at a collection point.

snoony2

Have just spent ages typing out all my 'great finds' for shoeboxes and for some reason it wouldn't add onto the thread and I've lost the lot!! Really should be revising at the mo so will retype the main ones I've found in the sale.

WH Smith online & instore (delivery is free to local store)
- some items online in the gift section are reduced by up to 75% - I've ordered pens, pencils and note books.

Monsoon - has 70% off sale accessories. Includes hats, scarves, gloves, necklaces, bangles, hair bobbles, slides, hairbands & small girls handbags. I think their items are beautiful but wouldn't pay the usual RRP so have stocked up while the sale is on!

The disney store has a good sale on instore - pens, pencils, pencil cases reduced - some by about 70% (doesn't seem too good online though). They do lovely playing cards too (these aren't reduced yet though!)

I ordered some items from Hawkins Bazaar online - (used a code for free delivery) I'm not sure how much is left now but they had stickers and puzzles reduced by about 70% (also do great wind up toys and tic tac toe puzzles really cheaply too)

In Tesco the small Christmas soft toys are reduced to 45p (Chilly bean toys) - they are really nice quality and a great size for boxes - they had teddies, rag dolls, reindeers etc when I went in.
The party favour section is good in Tesco too - can get puzzles, bouncy balls, rings, lip glosses etc - these items do go into the sale every so often too.

Claires are great for accessories and stationary as already mentioned - they have started their 5 sale items for £5 offer too - I got lots of items yesterday, many with RRPs of £4 -£8, and all for £1 each.

Oh well had better go - had loads more stuff to list - will try to post again soon.

P.S. I would be interested to hear of other shoebox appeals as I am considering changing the organisation I usually send mine with. I want to be certain that my boxes are given out unconditionally and without any religious information added. Any info would be appreciated. Thankyou!!

funnyfreckle

I love doing these shoeboxes!

I was in Sainsburys today and picked up packs of four highlighters which come in a sweet plastic case for only 25p (down from £1) and 8 small gel pens for 50p (down from £2). Whilst these pens are smaller than normal they are actually a really good size - about 10cm.

Great for shoeboxes and party bags.

snoony2

Just wondered if someone could suggest items that would be particularly good to put in boxes for teenagers. I usually fill boxes for girls aged up to about ten. I have enough items to fill around ten boxes for this age group now though and since hogshead mentioned that there's a shortage of teenage boxes I think I'll try to look out for suitable items for this age range over the rest of the year. What do you usually put into the girl teenage ones (apart from make up) that's different from the age group below??

Also what about teenage boy boxes? I only have daughters so am not sure what would be ideal. Any suggestions would be great.

Thankyou

hogshead

£1 shop in Gloucester have some hat/glove/scarf sets. That hat is much more generous than the one in the set from Matalan though the gloves are magic gloves but on balance the £1 shop set would be a better fit for 'all' esp as we don't know who gets the box.
They are boyish colours but with a felt flower added onto it, maybey some coloured tastles on the scarf it'll be good for girls also.

Teenagers I'd think will like
socks
underwear
deodorant
toiletries
pack of cards
ball ( random I know but think sting ball, dodge ball etc)
stationary
sweets
small torch ( though battereis are an issue I know more re replacing than restricted )

Quite hard I know