November 30, 2025

Cheer Box 2025: Look Back on a Week Filled with Love and Giving

DES MOINES, IOWA  --  Cheer Box 2025 is a wrap after five days of moving, packing, sorting, wrapping, and distributing more than 700 care packages to Iowans in need of extra cheer this holiday season.

Hundreds of volunteers came together during the week of November 17th to fulfill anonymous wishes for Iowans old and young who've lost someone in their lives in the last year.  The week began with a fully packed storage unit on one side of town and an empty office space on the other side of town.  Within a few hours the storage unit was empty and the space was decorated for the season.  But that was just the start of the fun.

Over the next four days, volunteers worked in two hour shifts to assemble the Cheer Box, fill them with gifts, wrap those gifts, then wrap those boxes.  And still there was work to do!

Each completed Cheer Box was then sorted into stacks for each of the hundreds of delivery drivers who volunteered to take the Cheer Boxes on their final journey to the hands of someone in need.

At the end of the week the final total was 728 Cheer Boxes completed and sent out for delivery.  After a few days of rest, the Amanda the Panda team behind Cheer Box is already preparing for Cheer Box 2026.

Thank you to all of you who made this year's Cheer Box event such an overwhelming success and we hope to see all you (and more) back with us in 2026.