PRIMARY school children have filled more than 260 shoe boxes with gifts for children in eastern Europe.

Children at Galley Hill Primary School, in Guisborough, and Roseberry Primary School, in Great Ayton, worked together to fill boxes with toys, crayons and paper for young children. The boxes are being distributed in Romania.

Geoff Brown, international organiser of the Rotary Club of Guisborough and Great Ayton, said: "We are delighted at enthusiasm of the children in Great Ayton and Guisborough and the speed with which they filled so many boxes."

The rotary club's scheme started in 1994 and since then, tens of thousands of custom-made shoe-box sized cartons have been distributed to children and families who are struggling to survive in Moldavia, Belarus, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Albania, Kosovo and Poland.

The scheme initially provided Christmas boxes to children in Romanian orphanages, but now cosmetics and personal hygiene products are also sent to teenagers and basic household commodities to adults.