By NEAL WAGNER / City Editor

Local Books-A-Million stores are looking to make the holidays a little brighter for sick and injured children at Children’s Hospital of Alabama, and are looking for the public’s help in donating items.

Through Dec. 20, area Books-A-Million locations, including stores in Alabaster and off U.S. 280 in Hoover, will accept donations to benefit the hospital’s Sugar Plum Shop. Through the shop, which is presented by Regions Bank, parents of Children’s Hospital patients who must spend the holidays in the hospital will be able to select free items to gift to their children.

“It’s great to know that the donations will find its way to someone who really needs a special blessing while they are a patient in the hospital during the holidays,” Books-A-Million Event Coordinator Lyndsie Garrett wrote in a press release.

Books-A-Million stores are looking for donations of books, toys, technology items such as e-readers and holiday-themed items.

“We are truly blessed to be able to partner with Books-A-Million to raise the spirits of the patients and families we serve this holiday season,” Cayleigh Cummings of Children’s Hospital wrote in the release. “There is no way we could make an event like the Sugar Plum Shop work without organizations in our community and state like them.”