Volunteers in Iowa have been making gift bags for soldiers' children this Christmas.

Volunteers in Iowa have been hard at work making Christmas gift bags for children who have a parent deployed overseas.

Residents of Cedar Falls gathered at the AmericInn this week to stuff teddy bears, WCF Courier reports, as part of a national effort within 200 of these US hotels.

Each of the Christmas gift bags will then contain toys, games, crayons, movies, books and popcorn and will be distributed to the recipients during a festive party in December.

The Cedar Falls event was organised by Anna Shower, general manager of the inn.

Ms Shower said: "We have 35 families we need to fill bags for, although that number is growing all the time.

"I asked for things they would like to do for family time. We've had a great response".

Along with some of her fellow colleagues, Ms Shower is an army veteran, having been a hospital corpsman in the navy.

She explained that this meant she understood the importance of charitable schemes such as this.

"As a soldier, you have soldiers around you and you make that your family. It's difficult for those kids who have a parent deployed. They miss them and they worry. That is a huge burden… Sometimes the kids get lost in all this," she told the newspaper.

This is why the teddy bears are such an important gift, as Ms Shower argued that they symbolise many things.

"Hugs, kisses, the misses. That's what this bear is all about," she said.

Each of the bears was also given a personalised t-shirt created by the volunteers to give them a little personal touch and to help them become even more memorable presents for the children.

This week, 20 bags of gifts were filled, however, more are due to be completed at a later date.

However, this depends on more volunteers helping and enough donations being made to build each sack of presents.

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