(Salvation Army Red Deer)

By Sheldon Spackman

Making It Work

Salvation Army Kettle Campaign starts Friday in Red Deer

Nov 12, 2020 | 6:53 PM

Friday marks the launch of this year’s annual Salvation Army Christmas Kettle Campaign in Red Deer and officials have made adjustments to make it as safe as possible during the COVID-19 pandemic.

New in 2020, is the ‘tap’ feature, where holiday shoppers can choose from three amounts to donate ($5, $10, $20) from right on the kettle stand. You can tap your credit card, debit card, or cell phone to the amount chosen, while requests for charitable receipts can be given to kettle volunteers or by calling the Salvation Army office.

With the campaign set to run from Nov. 13 – Dec. 24, except on Sundays, residents can also donate online at fillthekettle.com, or through a text-to-donate feature anticipated shortly.

Additional safety measures include the wearing of masks by volunteers, physical distancing, and lots of sanitizing for equipment and hands.

Kettle volunteers are also needed for two-hour shifts at seven locations throughout the city. Those locations include Parkland Mall on Saturdays only, Deer Park Co-op, Timberlands Co-op, Walmart south, Canadian Tire south, Super Store, and Santa and American Eagle at Bower Place.

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Major Kent Hepditch with Salvation Army Red Deer, points out, however, that both donations and volunteer numbers are down from this time last year.

“Our kettle coordinator had a list of about 500 volunteers and right now, she has about 60 or 70 confirmed, so that’s quite the drop,” he admits. “Of course most of our volunteers are seniors, so we can understand that they would be a lot more cautious this year about volunteering.”

Hepditch suggests that local families may wish to consider volunteering as a way to give back to the community during this season of giving.

“I just got an email today from one of the youth groups, so that’s encouraging,” adds Hepditch. “So hopefully we’ll get some of the younger people and families to volunteer as well.”

In terms of a fundraising goal, Hepditch says they’re keeping it the same as last year at $250,000 but with reduced expectations.

“We understand it’s a different year and we really don’t know what to expect,” concedes Hepditch. “We’re kind of thinking with less shoppers, less volunteers, less locations, that it’s going to be a difficult road to get to 250, but we want to try and keep the bar up there and have the income to help people for the whole 12 months of the year.”

All proceeds from the Kettle Campaign stay in Red Deer and provide local families with food hampers, Christmas assistance, beds, and weekend meals for children facing food scarcity at home.

Other ways to help those less fortunate in our community include the Salvation Army’s Adopt-A-Family program, which is also underway, as well as the Christmas Wish Breakfast coming up on Nov. 22.

“It could be a bit of a smaller campaign this year depending on the response we get from the community,” says Hepditch. “So we do appreciate if there are those who maybe haven’t volunteered before. But we do need volunteers and contributors this year, probably now more than ever.”