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Toy shop meeting goal, kettle donations down

Published 12:00pm Monday, December 14, 2009

Donations are expected to meet the needs of this year’s Salvation Army toy shop, though contributions to the annual kettle campaign are about $48,000 short.

The Toys for Tots campaign through the U.S. Marine Corps. has made a big difference to this year’s toy shop, said Salvation Army Capt. Dawn Russell. In fact, the roughly 400 items the Salvation Army has collected so far would not be enough without the addition of Toys for Tots items next week, she said.

“That’s really a saving grace,” she said.

The toy shop is scheduled for Wednesday for families whose applications have already been received and reviewed. It will continue into Thursday to accommodate families whose applications have arrived late.

Last year about 50 people showed up the day of the event, Russell said. She expects to see similar numbers this year.

The Salvation Army’s kettle campaign is in particular need of donations, down about $48,000 from the organization’s goal. Proceeds fund everything from social services to housing assistance, Russell said, with rent and utility assistance almost always in demand. It’s hard to know how much of that demand is due to the economy without going through each case to see if the household has lost a job, she said.

Failure to raise the remaining funds would mean cuts to Salvation Army programs, Russell said.

“There’s no doubt that we’d have to do that,” she said.

Bell ringers will be out through Dec. 24.

Meanwhile, the food shelf distributed about 1,100 more pounds of food last month than in November 2008, according to Gary Nelson, the organization’s treasurer. Volunteers are seeing 30 to 40 people come in each day of the food shelf’s three-day week.

In November alone, 27 new families were represented, Nelson said, while 127 families were in for the first time this year. In all, the food shelf saw nearly 900 people.

Donations have helped volunteers keep the food shelf stocked with the basics: meat, margarine, milk, fruit and vegetables, for example. The food shelf received nearly 33,000 pounds of food in November from area schools, businesses, civic organizations and churches.