A HANDFUL of lucky Albanian orphans will be celebrating Christmas this winter, some for the first time, thanks to kind-hearted schoolchildren in Verwood.
Around 250 shoeboxes filled with toys, goodies and learning tools were collected by Verwood Rotary Club.
The boxes will make part of the estimated 17,000 goody packs collected from across the South of England that will be loaded into lorries at the weekend and shipped to Albania.
Pupils from Emmanuel Middle School and Verwood First School filled 80 boxes for the disadvantaged babies and children, many of whom have no belongings at all.
More boxes have already been collected from other organisations and schools.
Colin Bateman, public relations officer for Verwood Rotary Club, said: "We have got very generous kids and we are very happy to be able to do this."
This will be the sixth year that Verwood Rotary has run the Rotary School Box Campaign and last year 350 boxes were collected in Verwood.
Grahame Webb, head teacher at Emmanuel Middle School in Verwood, said: "The children have done tremendously well. The response has been fantastic. I am always really delighted with the children, they always respond to things like this."
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