Salvation Army’s Kettle Campaign on track but needs continued help

By KENDALL KING on December 15, 2022.

kking@medicinehatnews.com

Medicine Hat’s Salvation Army is on track to achieving its 2022 Christmas Kettle Campaign goal, assuming support from the community continues in the days leading up to Dec. 24.

“The kettle appeal, right now, is doing pretty well,” Maj. Norman Hamelin, local Salvation Army commanding officer, told the News. “If we maintain the revenue that we’re getting now, we should be close to (the season’s goal), which is $130,000.”

Funds raised through the campaign go toward Salvation Army community service work for the upcoming year.

“We help people with a variety of things, like transportation, housing and a hot meal and a lunch program down at the community centre,” said Hamelin.

Hamelin is grateful for Hatters’ support of the campaign so far this season and reminds the public that kettles will be in various locations across the city from now until Christmas Eve.

“We’ve got 11 kettles total,” said Hamelin. “And the kettles are at various places (including) Canadian Tire, Save On Foods, the two Co-Op stores, Costco, Safeway and we’ve got two of them in the Walmart store. And all the donations that we receive this coming Saturday, Walmart is going to double that.”

Support for the kettle campaign is all the more important, Hamelin said, as the organization’s seasonal letter appeal is so far down from previous years.

“We send out a letter to people who donate every year, inviting them to donate again for a tax receipt and to support the work that we do,” said Hamelin of the appeal. “The last couple of years have been challenging with donations. So we weren’t sure what to expect, and while we’ve still got a couple of weeks left for letters to come in … the letter appeal is down a little bit. We’re sitting at about 35 to 40 per cent of our (goal), which is $200,000.”

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