With final numbers not yet complete, it looks like the North Bay Salvation Army’s annual holiday kettle drive has paid off once again.
The kettles, a fixture around the city throughout December, depend on volunteers to operate, and shoppers to donate.
Captain Val Redner of the Salvation Army says it looks like that combination has resulted in another success.
“We had a goal of 130 thousand dollars. We don’t have the actual final count right now but we are in the neighbourhood of 121 thousand. So overall it was a good campaign.”
The most obvious project the kettle campaign is involved in at Christmas is its hamper campaign.
This year, Redner says the Army provided over 650 Christmas hampers to those who don’t qualify for the Santa Fund, which focuses on families with children.
“These go to people without children, whether they’re single, whether they’re couples. They might be a family that’s got, say a twenty year old son or daughter living with them. They’re the people that we look after.”
The likely difference in the two campaigns is what happens after the campaigns end.
The Santa Fund takes care of families for Christmas, while Redner says the kettle campaign, along with a mail out donation request, pays for community outreach projects all year round through its Family Services department.
“That looks after the hampers at Christmas, plus it looks after our community meal, the lunches we provide for schools, the food bank that we operate and all the other things that Family Services that we do is dependent on the kettle campaign and the mail out campaign.”
“Altogether I guess we would have a budget of about 205 thousand dollars so I guess that’s kind of what we look for at Christmas time.”
It will be the middle of January before all the donations come in and the Salvation Army will know how much was raised, but Redner says he’s optimistic the goal will be reached, and the projects will continue.
