Salvation Army surpasses its kettle campaign goal by $11,024

Posted Jan 12, 2012 By Doreen Barnes

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Doreen Barnes, St. Lawrence EMC

Salvation Army Kettle campaign coordinator Christine Spicer puts the last kettle away in storage for another year. This very successful drive netted the organization $84,024 to put towards services which the Salvation Army provides to the public. As well, the Christmas Appeal Letter, another Salvation Army campaign, amounted to about $90,000. These goals could not have been met without the support and generosity of the local communities.

EMC News - The totals are in and the Salvation Army Kettle Campaign raised $84,024 through the generosity of individuals donating to kettles in Brockville, Prescott and Athens.

"With more time campaigning in Prescott, more volunteers to man the kettles and the new location at the Real Canadian Superstore, it made quite a bit of difference in the total," said Christmas Kettle campaign coordinator Christine Spicer, "along with the extra day."

Spicer continued to say that last year the campaign only ran in Prescott for two weeks compared to the month of December this year.

Other components of a successful campaign were the volunteers.

"We had more volunteers this year," added Spicer. "We recruited quite a few more, 126 plus this year compared to 86 last year because of the service groups and the Brockville Country Club."

Some service organizations arranged for their own scheduling of members for certain kettles, making the actual volunteer count way more than the 126 people who Spicer worked with.

All total, 10 kettles were manned for 1,900 hours.

"Another first this year was the recruitment of students who took this work very seriously and were very dependable," said Spicer.

She also praised the individuals who had read the media articles and called the Salvation Army office to add their name to the list of volunteers. Some of these volunteers were laid off from their current employment and wanted something meaningful to do.

Early on, one area of concern for Spicer was if someone called in sick or was unavailable for their shift. But Spicer didn't have to worry as she had quite a few on-call individuals who were available with just a telephone call, making the campaign run smoother.

As Spicer said, "All the volunteers who dedicated their time were very generous, reliable, dependable and I felt were doing it for the right reason."

Coinciding with the Christmas Kettle campaign was the Christmas Appeal letter, With Hearts of Gratitude which Major Randy Gatza indicated amounted to about $90,000.

All monies raised from both campaigns will go towards sending children to camp, giving food to families, providing pastoral care as well as clothing and many other services.