ROME N.Y.-It was a special day at the Rome Rescue Mission as over 300 filled and wrapped shoeboxes were donated there.

The boxes come from the Vernon-Verona-Sherrill School District as part of VVS’s Shoebox Santas.

This is the fourth year that the school district has done this and the boxes are filled with personal hygiene items, hats, gloves, and even toys for people and families to have a little love and happiness this holiday season.

Kelly Ross, a Teaching Assistant at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill High School says the amount of boxes donated has increased year after year since they began the program four years ago.

“We collect filled boxes full of like personal hygiene items for people who may not get a Christmas gift. So, we started very small, we never put a number on it and four years ago we collected 400 boxes. Some people do monetary donations, some people just do family items, some people make filled boxes and they are absolutely wonderful. Everything that we get is absolutely wonderful." said Ross.

This year 371 boxes were donated. It was also the year the most monetary donations were given totaling close to $1,000.