The Salvation Army kettle campaign is off and running.
Launched on Thursday at Intercity Shopping Centre, the organization has set a modest $180,000 target in 2015, down about $10,000 from the amount it raised a year ago.
Capt. Lori Mitchell said they don’t want to be over-ambitious, but the money is important. While they get funding from upper levels of government to help cover the costs of their residential programs, but for their community and family services programs, their left on their own to find the money.
“We rely on public support for things like that,” Mitchell said.
“Things like our food bank, our programs for children. We have a school breakfast program, we have an anger management program for children. Our soup van goes out 365 days a year to feed people on the streets. And then we also have emergency disaster services, work that we do when there is a major event in the city.”
With the aid of volunteers, the Salvation Army plans to set up shop with their familiar kettles at about eight sites around the city, including Wal-Mart on Memorial Avenue and County Fair Plaza, Intercity Shopping Centre, Super Store and Grandview Mall.
“Then on Dec. 1 we open at three LCBOs in the city,” Mitchell said.
The response over the years has been fantastic, she added.
“We’re fortunate. In this city we have a great reputation and the people seem to trust us. So we want to maintain that trust. We work very hard to spend wisely and to really make the dollars go as far as we can possibly make them go,” she said.
Ontario Power Generation’s Aaron Del Pino, whose company has been a long-time supporter of the kettle campaign, said it’s all about giving back.
“We’re very honoured and privileged to so,” Del Pino said.
“We believe it’s important to be a part of the community and serve the communities we operate in. We’re also mindful of the need to ensure that every dollar is invested in a good way. And it’s grass roots programs like the Salvation Army’s Christmas kettle campaign that help build stronger, safer and healthier communities.”
