Cardboard school buses and real trucks will fill center court at Crossroads Mall this week in an effort to gather school supplies for 12 area classrooms.

The 12 cardboard box school buses are already in place. They will be joined Monday morning by pickup trucks provided by Fort Dodge Ford Lincoln Toyota, Kemna Auto of Fort Dodge and Shimkat Motor Co.

The goal is to fill those trucks with supplies to be divided between the 12 classrooms represented by the cardboard school buses, according to Melissa Verschoor, the mall manager.

The effort is called Haulin Truck for School Supplies.

”We’re trying to help out as many classrooms and teachers as we can,” Verschoor said.

People can nominate classrooms to receive the supplies by visiting the mall’s Facebook page. To submit a nomination, list the school, the teacher’s name and the grade level. Classrooms from any area school can be nominated,

School supplies can be donated for the effort by bringing the items to mall and placing them in one of the trucks.

People who donate supplies between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday can register to win gift cards from mall merchants.

Verschoor said a full range of school supplies, including crayons, pencils, pens, markers, folders, facial tissue, paper notebooks and scissors will be accepted.

Donations of money to buy school supplies will be accepted at the mall office.