PACKERS and wrappers are needed to help out at a 'Super Shoe Box Saturday' this weekend at St Andrew's Church in Barnt Green.

There are 300 shoeboxes ready to be filled with toys, hygiene items and stationary that have been donated to the church throughout the year as part of Samaritan's Purse's Operation Christmas Child.

Church co-ordinator Rosemary Aveyard, who visited Zambia last year to deliver the shoeboxes in person, said: "I was part of the team that took boxes to Zambia. It’s hard to describe the joy we saw.

"These children had never received a gift of any kind.

"This year we're hoping to fill 300 boxes so we need some extra helpers to come and fill them."

The Super Shoe Box Saturday will run from 10am until 3pm on October 6. Tea, coffee and cake will be available.

After the boxes have been packed, they will be stored at the Sandhills Road church until November when they will be shipped off to areas of Africa and Eastern Europe.

Shoebox donations can be dropped off in the church porch until November 18.

Rosemary added: "We particularly need shoe boxes for teenage boys. These boys don't have wifi or computers so they need footballs, puzzles and calculators or hygiene items and stationary."

For more information visit samaritans-purse.org.uk.