COUNCIL staff are hoping to provide some Christmas cheer to disadvantaged children.
Staff at Richmondshire District Council are taking part in Operation Christmas Child, a scheme run by Christian organisation Samaritan's Purse.
Council worker Margaret Flint said: "We will be sending off 95 shoe boxes so children in orphanages, refugee camps and hospitals receive a little bit of desperately-needed Christmas cheer.
"This is a real hands-on charity effort. Instead of merely dropping a coin into yet another collecting tin, you really have to engage with what you are doing; choosing the gifts and deciding the age and sex of the child you want to receive the present.
"People get their children involved; perhaps asking them to select gifts, or donate some of their own toys for a child their own age."
This is the sixth year council staff have contributed to the project.
The presents will join more than a million other shoe boxes collected in the UK, and 6.5 million worldwide, being sent to children in 95 countries.
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