Red Kettle campaign still far off fundraising goal
Salvation Army bell ringers in Zelienople found a surprise in their red kettle when counting the money they had gathered outside Walgreens and Bilo last week.
“It came with dollar bills wrapped around it with gum bands,” said Marietta Reeb, treasurer of the Zelienople-Harmony Salvation Army unit. “We started counting and thought this looks interesting. It was a Canadian gold coin.”
Reeb, who has been treasurer of the Zelienople-Harmony unit for about 15 years, said the Red Kettle campaign had a gold coin donated every year for several years until a few years ago. Reeb said she thought the anonymous donor who had been slipping gold coins into the kettle had died or moved away.
That was until she found the coin Monday, Dec. 18.
Reeb said the donation will help fund supplies and shelter for local families in need this holiday season.
“One of the local jewelers has already offered us $2,000 cash for it,” Reeb said. “That really is a blessing for our kettle.”
Maj. Darlene Means of the Salvation Army Butler Corps said the Red Kettle campaign has faced challenges this holiday season, because the Butler unit has had only four paid bell ringers manning kettles at stores in the area due to a lack of volunteers.
Means said the agency could still take volunteers until the end of the day Saturday, when the campaign ends. Kettles gathering money for the Butler unit are at Boscov’s, Sam's Club, the Butler Walmart, Big Lots and the Cranberry Township Walmart this week.
“With only having two or three kettle workers out, it's going to be hard making our goal,” Means said. “The ones we have out every day, they are paid workers. We haven't had too many volunteers this year. If they want to come in and give us a few hours, that would be great.”
Means said the Butler unit’s target for the campaign this year is $92,000, and the agency has gathered about 72% of that goal. She said the unit reached its goal last year and upped it to $92,000 this year, but if the campaign doesn’t reach that goal, Salvation Army administrators will take that into account when setting next year’s goal.
With this year’s Red Kettle campaign coming to a close, Means said she recommends people contact the Salvation Army Butler Corps by late summer in 2024 if they want to be involved in the next campaign.
“They should start calling us in September if they want to work next year,” Means said.
The Salvation Army Butler Corps can be reached by phone at 724-287-5532.
