The Salvation Army in Prince Albert had a successful Christmas season and campaign to provide food hampers, gifts, and other things to make Christmas brighter for those who are less fortunate.
Salvation Army Major Ed Dean said they have nearly reached their $100,000 goal.
“We had a good campaign,” Dean said. “Our kettles did just under $50,000, but the whole campaign was not just the kettle campaign. It was those that made monetary donations to us as well, and there will still be a little bit that will be coming in the mail over the next few days to supplement that.”
Dean said the new tap feature at Salvation Army kettle locations proved very popular with donors this year. He said the final financial results were very positive.
“We were very happy with the campaign,” he added.
The Christmas campaign not only helps pay for hampers and gifts, it also covers regular outreach efforts during the rest of the year. That includes Salvation Army meal programs, which have seen demand jump from 60 meals a day to 170.
“We served 560 families with toys, we are ever grateful to the Optimist Club Prince Albert who run Santa Anonymous for raising toys, also to the Malcolm Jenkins Family Foundation for their contribution and Walmart for their contribution. Between them all we were able to meet the needs of the families this year,” Dean said
“Walmart donated a bunch of toys to our campaign. We had purchased some and then Walmart came and contributed more to that campaign,” he added.
Dean thanked the many people who contributed any way they could during a difficult year.
“A great big thank you to the community for helping us strive towards that goal, (to) the many, many partners, the volunteers, contributors, all of those bell ringers that stood on a kettle for an hour or two, and the support from the local media to get the message out for us,” he said. “It is an important time of year and … these are our community families and that we need to be supporting in this time to make it better for everybody who we live with.”
Michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
