GENEROUS shoppers have given the spirit of Christmas true meaning by supporting a festive present campaign.

Members of Basingstoke Deane Rotary Club spent a Saturday in Basingstoke’s Festival Place shopping centre, collecting donations for the club’s annual Christmas shoebox appeal.

Shoppers were able to buy a wrapped, empty shoebox to fill with gifts themselves, make a donation for the Rotarians to fill a whole or half a box on their behalf, or just pick up a leaflet on how to put toge-ther a box in their own time.

John Swain, from the Basingstoke Deane club, said: “It’s an annual appeal and we were trying to encourage members of the public to support us.

“It went really well. We raised over £825 and that’s only in one day. We didn’t raise much more than that last year and that was over two days.”

Every year, members of Basingstoke Deane, Basingstoke Loddon and Basingstoke Rotary Clubs collect hundreds of shoeboxes filled with little gifts which they sort, ship and deliver to underprivileged children in Tanzania, Montenegro and Romania.

The Rotary clubs are also encouraging staff, pupils and parents at north Hampshire schools to put together boxes. More information is available by emailing basingstoke@rotary1110.org.uk.

Guides and Scouts groups can also take part, and anyone interested should contact Colin Hall on colin@colmid.fsnet.co.uk.

To put together a box, readers should fill a shoebox with a range of gifts – such as gloves, scarves, colouring pencils, games, a hairbrush – and specify on the wrapped box whether it is for a boy or girl and what age group, from one to 15.

Donors should not pack food, medicines, liquids, sharp or fragile items, battery-powered items, anything related to war (like toy guns or soldiers) or any political or religious materials.

The lid and box need to be wrapped up separately and people are asked, if possible, to attach £1 to the top of each box to go towards travel costs.

The closing date for the Rotary appeal is October 15. Readers can drop off their boxes between 9am and 5pm at Gazette Newspapers, in Pelton Road, Basingstoke, Alan Gibson Volvo, in Brunel Road, Basingstoke or at Alan Gibson Mazda, on the A30 at Old Basing.

More information on the appeal can be found at therotaryclub.eu.