Salvation Army’s Christmas campaign needing support

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on December 16, 2022.

Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-Guzman Major Donna Bladen and worker Chris Saprikin are looking for a jump in support with the Salvation Army Christmas Hope campaign well below its goal with only a week to go.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

The Lethbridge Salvation Army is asking the community for a last minute push to be able to gather enough donations to help those in need during the Christmas holidays through various programs.

Salvation Army Major and community ministries officer, Donald Bladen, said their Christmas Kettle campaign is unfortunately very short from their $150,000 goal at the moment.

“Currently we are just shy of $48,000 with only one plus week to go,” said Bladen.

He said they also do a Christmas mail out, letters to people that have been identified as donors of the Salvation Army and their goal for that is $100,000. Bladen said they are currently sitting at about $55,000 for the year.

“Overall, we have a budget of about $250,000 and we are just slightly over $100,000 on the year, so we’re not even really quite 50 per cent of our goal yet and Christmas is really just a little over a week away,” said Bladen.

He said the money collected during Christmas time goes towards a multitude of programs, including their Christmas Hope campaign to provide Christmas toys to needy families.

“We provide toys this year for approximately 1000 children, probably slightly over 1000 children and there are others doing the same sort of thing, so the need this year is tremendous,” said Bladen.

He said they are also in need of new toy donations for their campaign.

Bladen said the money collected through the kettles also goes towards providing weekly food distribution out of their community Family Services building as well as their program called Pathway of Hope.

“Pathway of Hope is a program where people will come to us and sit down, and we will have a conversation and several conversations thereafter about setting life goals, about achieving those goals,” said Bladen.

He said the idea is to help them achieve some of their life goals and to hopefully get out of the cycle of poverty.

“We deal with a significant number of newcomers to Canada here in Lethbridge also, and so that’s an ongoing challenge because every time we become aware of a new family, there’s several other new families that have also come,” said Bladen.

He said they also have programs to help youth at risk that utilize money collected through the kettles.

Bladen said that even though they fundraise and accept donations throughout the year, their big push is through their Christmas Kettles and that is why they are asking the community to help in any way they can.

People interested in donating can do so at the Christmas Kettles which provide a digital option to donate via debit or credit located at both Walmarts, Costco, Park Place Mall and SaveOn Foods West, as well as in person at the Salvation Army Church located at 1302 4 Ave. South, or online at https://www.lethbridgesalvationarmy.ca

“It is important that people know that what is collected in Lethbridge, stays in Lethbridge,” said Bladen.

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