Sally Ann kettle campaign struggling

Local Salvation Army branches are reporting that their annual kettle campaign is falling behind in reaching its goal this year.

People aren’t necessarily giving less, they may just be having a more difficult time finding a place to donate.

Before you even see the Salvation Army Christmas kettle in the heart of Hamilton’s Jackson Square, you can hear volunteer Pat Taylor-Bannatter calling on shoppers for donations.

And with each five dollar bill, followed by a pocket full of change, or tiny toonie, she proves her cheery attitude is an invaluable help to the charity: “It feels good. You believe that humans care about other humans. And especially at Christmas time you want people to realize that there are people out that don’t have as much and I consider myself lucky.”

And the charity is lucky to have Pat.

Dan Millar, The Salvation Army: “The biggest thing is trying to get the volunteers to man the kettles.”

The Salvation Army’s Dan Millar says in the Hamilton-Burlington region, they’ve only reached 40% of their $675,000 target this season. With 11 days left, the organization is looking for more volunteers so they can put out more kettles for longer periods of time: “As long as they’re 16-years of age and older, they can man the kettle by themselves. But families can come and do it too.”

The average kettle collects about 400-500 dollars a day but at a busy location like this Costco in Ancaster they can make up to $2,000 a day.

A lot of money to lose out on if there is nobody there to collect.

What does Pat say to people thinking about donating their time to help?: “If you want your heart to feel good, do it.”