Kettle Donations: Serving kids in need
Ever wonder how The Salvation Army uses your red kettle donations?
If so, you’re not alone. For 125 years, people have been dropping money into red kettles blissfully unaware of the drastic amounts of good they are accomplishing.
“Kettle Donations” is an eight-part series that provides answers. We’ll explore a new Salvation Army program every week until Christmas. In the end, you’ll understand precisely how your kettle donations change lives during the Christmas season and year-round.
Your kettle donations fund quality youth programs for children of low-income families.
Nearly all of The Salvation Army’s 26 Worship and Service Centers in the Twin Cities, Greater Minnesota and North Dakota offer one or more of the following:
- After-school and summer programs
- Youth sporting activities
- Bible-based character building programs
After-school and summer programs are a godsend to low-income families, giving them access to childcare they otherwise could not afford. These free or low-cost programs allow hundreds of kids to enjoy a bevy of activities: field trips, games, crafts, reading, sports, Bible lessons, and much more.
“I wouldn’t have been able to make it without (Salvation Army youth programs),” said single mother Marianna Georgen, recalling the 10 years her son, Damien, attended after-school programs at the Payne Ave. Salvation Army in St. Paul. “It allowed me to take a second job.”
Your kettle donations help youth in other critical ways, including back-to-school supplies, winter coats, and our Booth Brown House shelter and housing facility for homeless youth.
All of these youth programs give at-risk youth the tools they need to grow into young men and women of character, kindness and responsibility.
2015 kettle season
A new kettle season officially begins the day after Thanksgiving, with select kettle locations beginning earlier.
There will be about 900 kettle locations throughout Minnesota and North Dakota. Please give a little something each time you pass by one, knowing your gift will allow The Salvation Army to help kids in your community.
If you’d like to take your kettle experience to the next level, sign up to be a bell ringer. In just two hours you’ll raise an average of $60 – enough money for The Salvation Army to buy four brand-new winter coats for kids in need.