A Flintshire church has announced the launch of it's annual Christmas shoebox appeal in collaboration with a Wrexham-based charity. 

Buckley Cross Methodist Church will act as a collection point for this year's Christmas shoebox drive in Buckley. 

Volunteers across Buckley have been sending hundreds of shoeboxes filled with essential items to those in need for over 30 years. 

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The volunteers sent over 500 boxes in last year's drive and hope this year will be equally successful. 

The boxes are filled with items such as clothes, soap, flannels, toothbrushes/toothpaste, sweets, soft toys, hats, gloves and scarves.

They are then sent to areas across the world where children otherwise would go without Christmas gifts in parts of Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

The church collect boxes as part of the Wrexham-based charity Teams-4U which began in 2006 after founder Dave Cooke saw the atrocities of the Beslan crisis in 2004 when over 300 people were killed in a school attack in Russia.

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The shoeboxes this year are going to deprived children/vulnerable adults/families in Ukraine, Romania, Bosnia, Moldova and Georgia.

The Buckley Cross Methodist church, which is based at Padeswood Road, Buckley, CH7 2JL, will be opening it's doors for three weeks for the shoebox drive. 

The shoebox appeal begins Monday October 31 and runs until Friday November 18. 

The church will be open 10am until 2pm each of these days for members of the public to dontate full shoeboxes or items to fill the shoeboxes such as soap, towels, hats, scarves, gloves, notebooks, pens, pencils and crayons etc. 

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The volunteers at the church will also be putting together family boxes with items such as tea towels, plastic plates and cutlery. 

Mac Ellis, team leader, also encourages members of the public to share unconventional items where they can, such as wrapping paper and the shoeboxes themselves.