As local residents begin their Christmas shopping, they're likely to see a familiar sight - the Salvation Army's familiar red kettles and bells.
The agency kicked off its annual Red Kettle campaign Friday with a ceremony at the Charleston Town Center mall. A mix of volunteers and paid employees will ring bells outside of 33 local stores from now until Christmas Eve, said Major Brooks Gilliam, area commander for the Salvation Army.
Gilliam said the goal of the campaign is to raise $200,000 for the agency's Christmas assistance program. The Christmas assistance program provides food for families and helps support the Angel Tree program, which provides toys to needy children, including those of inmates. It also helps support the Salvation Army's program that helps needy families with rent, utilities and other necessities during the year.
The closures of the Elkview Kmart and Kroger stores will mean a loss for the agency's campaign goals, Gilliam said. Together the stores typically brought in $20,000 each year. The stores are still closed after the June 23 flood washed away the culvert bridge to their location.
To make up for the loss, the Salvation Army is adding bell-ringers at Foodland on Spring Street in Charleston and Smith's Foodfair in Big Chimney, Gilliam said.
Gilliam said over the past few years, donations have been on a downward trend.
"You feel like you're fighting an uphill battle, but I believe the community is more than willing to support us," Gilliam said. "It's a generous community. We just need to get out more to more locations."
Running the Red Kettle campaign with volunteers alone would take thousands of volunteers, he said, so the agency also pays workers to ring the bells. Gilliam said approximately an eighth of the bell-ringers are volunteers. He said he would like to run the program on volunteers alone.
"That guarantees a hundred percent [of what's collected in the red kettles] goes into the program and doesn't have to have a salary coming out of it," Gilliam said.
People who are interested in volunteering can sign up online at redkettlevolunteer.org. Gilliam said the agency likes to have people at each location for eight hours at a time but volunteers do not have to volunteer for that long. Volunteers should volunteer for at least two hours at a time, he said.
Reach Lori Kersey at lori.kersey@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1240 or follow @LoriKerseyWV on Twitter.
