Salvation Army at 37% of goal with just days remaining

For the kettle drive, The Salvation Army rings the bells for a total of 1,400 hours, and she coordinates having a person at each ringing station in town during those hours.

“We’ve been doing this for so long, by now we have a smooth operation”, McCloy said. The donor, who asked to remain anonymous, called the Roseville Salvation Army unit the following day to confirm the donation.

The Salvation Army unveiled its new tote board, with red Christmas lights to keep tabs on its annual Red Kettle campaign, today at the same time it revealed its record-setting Match Day tally of $161,718.

Drew Forster, a spokesman for the organization, said they are usually around the halfway mark of their goal during mid-December, but this year they are slightly behind schedule.

Donna Paterson, shelter manager in St Catharines and the main co-ordinator for the event, said the dinner depends on volunteers like Stuive and the numerous other partners whose donations make it a success.

“As of last Thursday we were about $17,000 behind last year and in some respects that is a significant number for us this year”, said Salvation Army Corps Officer Captain Bill McKinley.

Many of these volunteers are not just giving their time now, but on the holiday too.

“With more people not carrying cash around, they often intend to make a donation, but sometimes forget”. Families also received a food voucher for a Christmas meal.

The Salvation Army operates the food bank, offers addictions programs and a drop-in centre.

“Thank you for the donations, because a lot of people do rely on it and appreciate what they do for us and for our kids”, she says.

The Salvation Army Red Kettles are filling up at a much slower pace this year, however; the need for our services by our community continues to escalate. “The need has risen, not just at Christmas, but throughout the entire year”, he said.