THUNDER BAY – A popcorn partnership has proven to be bountiful for the Salvation Army’s Kettle Campaign.
The organization on Monday received a cheque for $6,619, representing 6,619 bags of the tasty, locally made snack sold at Canadian Tire locations throughout Northwestern Ontario.
Suzie Byerley and Kevin Laidler, co-owners of Pop’s Kettle Corn, agreed to donate 50 cent from each bag sold this year, a total matched by the retail giant.
“It’s important because the Salvation Army is such a giving organization that we thought we would jump on board,” Byerley said.
“We followed suit from the previous owner and kept the campaign going. We’ve done really well. They did really well and we’ve carried it on because we like to help people in the community.”
The Salvation Army, which set a $220,000 campaign goal for 2018, has collected about $95,000 of that total with the popcorn proceeds added in, a number that has Major Lori Mitchell confident they’ll be able to reach their target once again.
“We’re tracking about the same as last year at this point,”
Mitchell said. “Things are going well. We do have quite a few empty spots right now for volunteers, so that would really be our push right now. We need people to call and be willing to stand on the kettle for an hour or two. If nobody’s standing there, we can’t raise money, so we really would like to have more volunteers.
Mitchell said the Christmas Kettle campaign is key to being able to deliver their community and family services programming.
In addition to the Salvation Army’s annual Christmas meal and toys for children in need, it helps supplement the cost of running their nightly soup van and school breakfast programs, to name just a couple of areas that benefit from the campaign.
To volunteer, phone 345-6492.
