Donations needed to grant wishes

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For the less fortunate, a warm meal and a place to sleep are at the tops of their Christmas wish lists. And with it’s annual kettle campaign nearing an end the Salvation Army is finding itself about $100 000 short of it’s goal to grant those wishes. They are hoping for a big Christmas rally to fill the kettles and push them over the top:

It’s a familiar sound heard in every mall across the country this time of year, a volunteer for the Salvation Army collecting donations to bring Christmas to those in need.

There are 2000 kettle kiosks across Canada, and 36 scattered throughout Hamilton.

“86 cents of every dollar donated to the Salvation Army goes to a ministry. That’s where the Christmas hamper program for food and toys comes from.” said Dan Millar from the Salvation Army.

Last year the Salvation Army in Canada raised $22 million throughout the holiday season not through online payments but through cash donations through the Christmas kettle program.

But with Christmas around the corner, Hamilton’s Salvation Army still has a ways to go to reach this year’s benchmark.

“Our goal is $410 000 but we’re at $311 000 with four days to go” said Millar

Falling short won’t cancel Christmas, a reserve fund is in place to compensate, but it might affect other operations.

“Programs continuously afterwards, there might be a shortfall with those because the money isn’t there.”

Besides donating online or your nearest kettle, the next best thing to help is your time.

“We’ve had a lot of volunteers that have gone down with sicknesses so they had to back out of their shifts. When no one is standing by their kettle then it cant be out.”

So when you hear those bells dig a little deeper into your pocket.

Regardless of how much is raised in the kettles The Salvation Army Hamilton booth centre on York Boulevard will be serving a Christmas dinner for approximately 300 men, women and children. The first sitting starts at 11:30 Friday morning.