Salvation Army ‘rescues Christmas’ with Red Kettle, Angel Tree
Thanks to the community donating through The Salvation Army this season, nearly 450 local children will have Christmas gifts to open today through the Angel Tree program, and a fundraising goal of $100,000 was met through the Red Kettle campaign, which will help local families in need in 2021, according to the organization.
“We’re very thankful to Garland County for making this a great success story and helping us rescue Christmas this year because that’s what our overall kind of 2020 theme was: Rescuing Christmas,” The Salvation Army Captain Bradley Hargis said. “We really feel like we have done that for so many local families and especially local children who will be able to run to the tree on Christmas morning and just see these really nice shiny gifts under the tree.
“I mean that’s going to … put a really great picture of hope at the end of this year to kind of clear out what otherwise would be a pretty nasty year for so many. So we’re just hoping that this will give us kind of a good catapult into 2021 so we can start a really nice good year.”
Entering the new year, Hargis said the local need is up by 155% compared to last year, due to the pandemic. As a result of more community members in need with likely less to give, The Salvation Army lowered its goal for the Red Kettle campaign by $15,000.
“We were expecting because of COVID that it was going to be less, as well as just we also thought people would have less to give this year … but we’re just so thrilled and excited that we made our $100,000 goal this year,” he said.
“Honestly, it was larger gifts that came in this year,” he said. “We’ve had people donate $100 bills, we’ve had several checks that were $500. So it’s those kind of major gifts that were put in the kettle to really kind of set this year apart from past years, so it’s been really kind of neat to see how the community has stepped up and really filled the void in those areas.
“And so in so many ways, just whether it be through the Red Kettle Program or the Angel Tree program, just any kind of seasonal program The Salvation Army has had this year, the community has
just kind of stepped up and filled the void in all those areas, and it’s been so great to just kind of watch and see that despite all the negative news you hear about the pandemic and other things, we have nothing but great news. So we’re so excited that as we’ve made goal, that we’ll be able to say yes to say many families who are needing assistance in the 2021 year.”
All donations made through The Salvation Army programs stay within the community.
“A lot of what (the Red Kettle campaign) pays for would be things like food assistance, rental assistance, any kind of other assistance whether it be clothing, really kind of those basic social services that people are needing,” Hargis said.
“It also goes to help fund our Red Shield Cafe, the nightly feeding program The Salvation Army does, which that averages roughly between, on a low night, 80 people to, we’ve been averaging 125-135 about now. We have fed as many as 200, but it goes to where we can be able to provide meals at night. We also do a mentoring program for at-risk youth on Wednesday evenings with lots of local children.”
Unfortunately, with the need being so great in the community this year, he said there is currently a waitlist of about 120, and some families will likely get turned away.
“We actually are no longer taking anyone else because our waiting list has about 120 names on it, but we are actually, after the holidays, going to be working through our waiting list and calling all the families back and kind of making sure no one is getting evicted, or do they have any other needs other than what they’re asking for; like maybe they need food or other things,” Hargis said.
“So, I mean quite honestly the need is so great this year there’s not enough funds, not only at The Salvation Army, but I mean adding all the nonprofits together, we’re kind of all in the same boat, if you added all of us together it still would not meet the need, but we’re just really aiming to all do the best we can with the funds that we have,” he said.
“Yes, there would be people that more than likely are going to get turned away just because, again, our waiting list is so long. I mean we’ve never had a waiting list of 120 people for any program ever, but this year is unprecedented and we’re just doing the most with what we have and we feel pretty good about that.”