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Well done to all our big-hearted readers! Generous locals have filled 159 shoeboxes with Christmas gifts for needy and underprivileged children exceeding our wildest expectations.Now they're being checked and repacked alongside thousands of others in a Dunstable industrial site resembling Santa's North Pole warehouse.Operation Christmas Child co-ordinator Tony Willson, 65, said they had been overwhelmed by the response this year: "In spite of the credit crunch, people are still thinking of others less fortunate than themselves."Some of the children have nothing. They sleep in dormitories with countless beds end to end and their only possession is a toothbrush. We heard of one little lad walking down the street in the middle of summer with his shoebox tucked under his arm. It was the only thing he owned."When Tony and his wife Teresa started doing Operation Christmas Child seven years ago, they used their Slip End garage as HQ to check the 6,000 boxes that came in.This year there are more than 24,000 and the first lorry leaves on Saturday (December 6) for its trip to Kiev in the Ukraine.Fellow co-ordinator Sue Briggs, 61, said she loved helping because filling a box was something small you could do that wouldn't break the bank. She added: "Our children get so much ask them what they got for Christmas last year and they can't remember."The children who receive the lovingly-packed boxes cherish the contents for years to come witness a story in this weeks Luton News. Ten-year-old Polish schoolgirl Veronica Pole, who now lives in Luton and attends Mill Vale Middle School, in Dunstable, still has the cuddly toy, gloves and colouring pencils she received as a child in Ostroleka, near Warsaw. Two of the oldest volunteers working in the warehouse are 76-year-old friends Beryl Smith, of Streatley, and Eileen Telford, of Luton. They have filled 120 boxes between them.Beryl said: "It's something good we can do for children now when they're small, so maybe when they're older they'll realise the world isn't such a bad place."And Eileen added: "Our little grandchildren want for nothing. These children have absolutely nothing. Sometimes the gifts are the first toys they've ever seen."Retired Vauxhall worker Cyril Wheatley, 74, has reduced wrapping boxes to a fine art as you can see on our website www.lutontoday.co.ukHe explained: "I enjoy practical work. This is the third year I've helped and each year I refine my technique."Cyril has started demonstrating his method to members of his church's Senior Moments group. "I encourage them to wrap up shoeboxes and show them how to fill them for not a great deal of expense," he said, with obvious satisfaction.One of our generous readers, who didn't want to be named, said she had enjoyed filling her boxes so much that she had already started on next year's.A very happy Christmas to everyone who contributed.Words: Bev CreaghVideo: Natalee Hazelwoodwww.lutontoday.co.uk