Christmas Kettle Campaign helped many during Christmas season

By Lethbridge Herald on January 7, 2026.

By Alejandro Pulido-Guzman

Lethbridge Herald

The Salvation Army of Lethbridge helped many children and families have a merry Christmas thanks to their Christmas Kettle Campaign and their Toys for Tots campaign.

Community Ministries Officer Zach Marshall said they not only reached their campaign goals, but they surpassed it for their Christmas Kettle campaign.

“We were very happy to have surpassed our fundraising goal. Things were looking a little bit hit and miss for a little bit there, but our goal was $220,000 and we ended up raising just shy of $238,000,” said Marshall.

He said they were all very thankful for the generosity of the community and how much they will be able to do with the money they raised.

“All the money that we raised with our kettle campaign goes into our community services to support things like Toys for Tots at Christmas time,” said Marshall. “But also, to support our year-round operations including ESL classes for newcomers, emergency housing and clothing supports for people in need, and community programming oriented towards seniors.”

He said the fundraising was a result from the various Christmas Kettles and multiple donations that came in directly from donors.

“We had kettles at Walmart North, Walmart South, Park Place Mall, Save on Foods West, Real Canadian Superstore, Costco and the Salvation Army thrift store,” said Marshall.

In terms of the Toys for Tots campaign, Marshall said the campaign went very well and they were able to help approximately 400 children receive toys for Christmas.

“Also, our joint efforts with the Christmas Hope Campaign helped us get the majority of our clients that we serve at Christmas time. And the Caldwells dropped off over 850 toys to us this year,” said Marshall.

He said both campaigns would not have been possible without the help of the many volunteers that put in hundreds of hours. Marshall said some people have given hundreds of hours, some people have given one or two hours, but each of those people have made a great contribution to the work that they do.

“We do have some staff members, but our volunteers are the people that make these campaigns happen, so we’re very thankful to everybody who’s given their time over the Christmas season,” said Marshall.