The Salvation Army kicked off its 2022 Christmas Kettle Campaign on Friday with an actual football kickoff.
“This year instead of a ribbon cutting we’re doing something new, we’re doing a prayer, then a literal football kickoff in the gym,” said Stephen Frank, corps officer for the Salvation Army – Simcoe.
“It coincides with Gray Cup weekend. I’ve had a couple (practice) kicks, it wasn’t too good,” he laughed.
Salvation Army staff wore team ‘Christmas Kettles’ football jerseys in keeping with the football theme.
“We have the mock goal posts set up in the gymnasium and Lieutenant Stephen is going to do the kickoff,” said kettle coordinator Doug Montgomery. “We wanted to do something fun, put a little different spin on it.
The Salvation Army – Simcoe, which serves all of Norfolk County, will have kettle locations throughout the county until Dec. 24.
All of the donations raised through the campaign stay in Norfolk.
This year’s kettle goal is $155,000 and $155,000 for the letter campaign. Last year more than $320,000 was raised through the two campaigns.
“We’ve always had great community support,” said Frank. “Most of it will go towards our food bank – that’s our biggest operation here in Norfolk County. Our food bank costs have increased 30 per cent this year alone, and we’ve seen an increase of over 30 per cent as well in people using our food bank.”
The Salvation Army emergency food bank in Simcoe is open Monday-Friday, 1-4 pm, providing food assistance for qualifying Norfolk County residents.
“We are an emergency food bank, but we still get a lot of usage.”
Salvation Army kettles in Norfolk County will be manned by volunteers. As of Friday just over half of the time slots had been filled.
“It’s always exciting because it’s a big time of year,” said Montgomery, “and we’re off to a really good start as far as volunteers. We have probably a bit more than 1,100 shifts available over the 32 days and we passed 600 shifts filled (Thursday). So obviously we still have room for more – that’s part of our appeal, to get some new volunteers. So if you’d like to volunteer or you know of somebody that would like to volunteer, that would be perfect.”
Montgomery said Delhi, in particular, has a need for more kettle volunteers.
“It would be a great benefit for us, which in turn is a great benefit for the community if we have more volunteers.”
Shifts are two hours and start at 10 am In Delhi, Waterford and Port Dover shifts finish at 6 pm In Simcoe, kettle shifts end at 8 pm
“There is a chair for volunteers at every location,” Montgomery noted.
If you are able to volunteer, contact Montgomery (text or call 519-909-9421) or the Salvation Army office (519-426-3640).
For information about the food bank service call the Salvation Army office.
