Local Salvation Army kettle campaigns hoping for surge in final week

Donations have been down to many Salvation Army Christmas Kettle fundraisers in British Columbia, and that includes Vernon and Kelowna.

“Locally, we are down approximately 20 per cent from where we were at last year,” said Neil Thompson, auxiliary-lieutenant with the Vernon House of Hope.

Thompson said, as of earlier this week, they were just over 50 per cent of their goal of $500,000, with the campaign ending on Christmas Eve.

“We are hoping to see a surge of support,” he told Vernon Matters.

Thompson said the Scotiabank match day held at Vernon’s Walmart Dec. 11 was a success with $4,460 raised which is being matched by the bank.

Walmart holds a national matching day for all the kettles outside its Canadian stores this Saturday, Dec. 18.

Money raised from the kettle campaign is used to support programs to help the less fortunate including the food bank.

Christmas food and gift hampers were distributed to about 500 individuals and families by the Army in Vernon this week.

People can donate at the kettles outside local stores or online.

Some community kettles in B.C. are off as much as 50 per cent compared to last year.

Mark Wagner with The Salvation Army in Kelowna told Kelowna10 there is still some worry in the community.

“We’re not panicked because we still have some time to go before Christmas, we really do need to keep donations coming in,” he said. “The main issue from my perspective is that it’s the need which has gone way up. For our Christmas blessing program, that’s gone from about 500 families to about 675 families and growing.”

As of Dec. 14, Kelowna had raised over $119,000, with $23,000 of that coming from the newly introduced tap feature. Kelowna is down over $40,000 compared to last year.

People can donate at any Christmas Kettles around the city or online.

The provincial goal is $5 million to help struggling families and individuals.