By Mitchell Blair
The community is coming through for the Salvation Army.
Captain Kristen Gray with the Regina branch says with two days to go in the annual Christmas Kettles campaign, she is confident that a goal of $225,000 will be met.
“I’m pleasantly surprised to see how well things have gone this year.” Gray said. “People have stepped up in a big way in the city and we are on track to meet the goal that we had set. It has been phenomenal to see. I am a recent import to Regina and I have been thrilled to see the Saskatchewan spirit at work and see them come together. In my wildest dreams, I couldn’t have imagined meeting the goal or exceeding it. It is phenomenal to see people step up.”
OTTAWA The Salvation Army s Christmas Kettles campaign is in its final push before Christmas and with a surge on demand, there is a greater need for donations this holiday season. At the Salvation Army s Bethany Hope Centre in Ottawa, it would be normally filled with parents and children running around for their annual Christmas party and dinner. Centre executive director Sandra Randall says while that is no longer possible during the COVID-19 pandemic, they still wanted to be able to provide a meal and understand how important it is to the clients. Now staff and volunteers are packaging nearly 60 holiday hamper feasts to prepare at home, along with a week s worth of provisions like diapers, formula and wipes and with the support of the Ottawa Food Bank.
Volunteer Henry Warth, left, loads bags of food into a car as Salvation Army The Dalles Corp business manager Kris Harmon talks with the driver at their food pantry downtown The Dalles. The number of people seeking food assistance has grown significantly since the beginning of the pandemic in March, even as traditional forms of fundraising and food drives drop off. Mark B. Gibson photo
âSalvation Army Pantry is full.â
So read the subject line of an email sent to supporters of the Community Meal program in The Dalles Dec. 7 by Chris Zukin, who helps organize the volunteers who work to provide a free hot meal to those in need and is a member of the Salvation Army The Dalles Corps board.
ebowleg@tribunemedia.net
A NUMBER OF local charities are seeing a drop in donations compared with last year as people are unable to give due to the country’s economic state.
While COVID-19 has dealt a blow to people’s pockets the Salvation Army said it also had a challenge rolling out their annual Christmas Kettles, according to the Divisional Commander Major Clarence Ingram.
“What we’re having a challenge with is we started (our) Christmas Kettles later because of COVID-19. So normally we would start around the 20th of November. This year we started the 1st of December and the last numberts we had were about $10,000 less than we had last year but you know we’ll see how things go this week.”
Publishing date: Dec 14, 2020 • December 14, 2020 • 4 minute read • Casa Loma s Holiday Light Tour is designed as a self-guided walk and is expected to be open from December 22 through January 31. SUPPLIED
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