Salvation Army seeking bell ringers

Reid joined hundreds of families standing in line to receive food items at the annual Salvation Army hamper distribution day at the trade and convention centre.

More than a thousand children will have a brighter Christmas this year all because of generous people giving to the Salvation Army.

Recent history has shown that about 50 to 55 percent of the total amount of money raised during the Salvation Army’s Red Kettle Christmas campaign is collected during the two weeks just preceding Christmas, according to officials from The Salvation Army Western Pennsylvania Division.

“My kids and I were faced with a really bad situation when my husband left us”, remembered Herbert, who has a 10-year-old son and 17-year-old daughter. “We were doing well until the snow storms hit”.

While the kettle campaign is on a par with a year ago, extended frigid weather predictions are a concern, and mail campaign donations are behind 2015, McDowell said. Donors can also volunteer their time through a number of opportunities from ringing a bell to sorting toys to serving food. “We want to be there to help them, but in order to do that, we need to raise these funds”. But K Mart is appealing to the public to donate more gifts to its store in Papatoetoe as part of their wishing tree appeal.

“They don’t have enough toys”, Merchant said.

Merchant believes the lack of returned gifts and tags has a lot to do with the snow.

“We’re blessed to be in a position to help others now”, Mary said. “The numbers just keep growing”.

Though donations are low, the organization’s leaders say they’re remaining optimistic.

According to UW-Madison’s Institute for Research on Poverty, about 10 percent of La Crosse County’s population lives in poverty, making simple, basic level needs hard to meet for some families.