DIXFIELD — In just under a month, people from Dixfield and surrounding towns donated 43 boxes of toiletries, foods, phone cards and other items to the Army’s 82nd Infantry Division stationed in Afghanistan.

“It’s been overwhelming,” said Town Clerk Vickie Carrier, who started the drive in early November. Her nephew, Scott Brown, is serving with the division.

Also packed inside each box were packets of balsam fir donated by a company in West Paris. The boxes were mailed from the Dixfield Post Office on Friday morning to the division’s chaplain for distribution.

“Monday was a big onslaught of donations,” Carrier said. “Maybe because the war has been going on so long.”

In addition to the hundreds of items amassed in the town office, $740 was received to pay the shipping costs and to buy about two dozen telephone cards.

Carrier, with the help of the other women in the town office, conducted a similar drive for troops serving in Iraq a couple of years ago. This year’s drive brought in at least twice as many items as before.

The town office is also collecting cat food, kitty litter and other items for abandoned cats under a program known as Christmas for Kitties. That drive is going well, too.

And on Monday, the town office will start collecting nonperishable food items to donate to the Dixfield food pantry at the Dixfield Common Baptist Church.

This is the first time the town office has served as a site for food collections.

“People want to help,” said Theresa Hemingway, a town office employee. “The economy is bad and a lot of people are out of work.”

Those who wish to give may drop off food items or cash between Dec. 7 and 21. The items will be given to the church for distribution, and the money will be used to buy items not donated.

Charlotte Collins, deputy town clerk, said the food pantry serves at least 70 families.

“There are so many in need. This is the season for giving,” she said.

The town office is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

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Dixfield town employees, led by Leo Jolin,  haul boxes of donated toiletries, food, phone cards and other items to the Dixfield Post Office on Friday morning to ship to the Army’s 82nd Infantry Division serving in Afghanistan. Besides Jolin, from left, are, Randy Glover, Town Manager Eugene Skibitsky, Town Clerk Vickie Carrier, Deputy Clerk Charlotte Collins and office clerk, Theresa Hemingway.