A Summer Santa toy drive to aid children of the Iowa floods, sponsored by Cleveland Heights residents Nivi Engineer and Sue Maher, is now underway.

Summer vacation is well underway for your children, but for many kids in Iowa, life is hardly idyllic.

Of course families are concerned about food and safe water, getting back into their homes, salvaging what can be saved, and trying not to think about how financially devastated they are by the floods.

Relief efforts have focused on the essential survival needs to get people's lives back to normal.

In the meantime, children are left to play in sewage-flowing front lawns. Toys have been ruined, and these kids could use constructive ways to channel their energy.

Please drop off some new or like-new toys at one of the locations listed below by July 15th. Items suggested include:

For Babies: non-cloth toys or non-wooden toys.

For Toddlers/PreSchoolers: Magna Doodle, crayons & coloring books, and flash cards.

For School Age Girls: Dolls and costume jewelry.

Other possible items: Children's flashlights, batteries, sidewalk chalk, scissors, pens and pencils, drawing paper, hand-held video games, age-appropriate books, balls, toy cars, plastic/rubber toy animals, backpacks, and school supplies.

Please do not send any items that are wooden, cloth, or craft items that need to be done on a table. Gather items in a backpack labeled on the outside with the age and gender of the intended child and drop them off at one of the locations listed below by July 15.

Drop-off Locations in Cleveland Heights:

Ruffing Montessori School (3380 Fairmount Blvd, Cleveland Heights)

St. Paul's Church (2747 Fairmount Blvd, Cleveland Heights)

Heights Parent Center (14780 Superior Road, Cleveland Heights)

Check out the website http://www.boundlessflight.com/summersanta to find more locations. You may also donate money to help those in need.

If you're interested in helping out, please feel free to contact Nivi Engineer at niviengineer@yahoo.com.

Cleveland Heights residents Nivi Engineer and Sue Maher are the coordinators of this local effort. Sue has family ties in Iowa. Beachwood Place Mall has donated shipping the donations, and the American Red Cross will manage distribution in Iowa.