When employees at Forever Broadcasting began accepting donations for the Shoeboxes for Soldiers campaign, few expected such a huge community response.

Andy Kelly, production director of Forever Broadcasting in State College, estimates about 3,000 shoeboxes were collected over a two-week period.

Shoeboxes for Soldiers, a campaign organized by Forever Broadcasting, asked the community to put items such as eye drops, lotion, shampoo, phone cards and deodorant into shoeboxes for servicemen and women. Dave Davies, general manager of Forever Broadcasting in Altoona, said.

The campaign, which ran from March 31 to April 11, began at the corporate office of Forever Broadcasting in Altoona after Davies heard about the program from another radio station that had great success with its campaign.

Forever Broadcasting in Altoona is working in conjunction with Gearharts Moving & Storage to pick up the shoeboxes at sponsor locations, including local businesses and other Forever Broadcasting stations.

The shoeboxes will be shipped to Fort Stewart, Ga., where a large number of national guard members are stationed, Davies said.

Davies said he was not surprised by the community's response, but impressed.

"I think that every American truly believes that they support the troops and their, mission. We support them not only with our thoughts but also with our deeds," Davies said. "The Shoeboxes for Soldiers campaign gives every American the ability to do something small."

Dan Wentz (junior-telecommunications), a full-time employee for Wowy 98.7 of Forever Broadcasting in State College, helped with the campaign.

"A lot of people think that just because the war is over, [the soldiers] don't need anything. But there's still six to eight months left of just securing Iraq," Wentz said. "It's going to take more soldiers to maintain than it took to invade and control."

Though many individual citizens donated, institutions such as churches, local area schools, Centre County governments and other organizations made the largest contributions, Wentz said. Many shoeboxes contained personal notes to the soldiers, he added.

Employees at Forever Broadcasting spent three days sorting and checking all the shoeboxes they received, Wentz said.

The boxes could not contain religious material, pornography or perishable items.

Kelly spoke with enthusiasm about the success of the campaign.

"It goes to show that not everyone might agree with the policy, but the support for the troops is there. That's nice," he said.