MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The Morgantown Area Salvation Army is seeing an increase in donations as part of the traditional Red Kettle Campaign.
With a week left for donations to be accepted at retail locations across the Morgantown Area, Salvation Army Captain Dennis Smith announced that they have passed their 2022 donation totals of just over $40,000. After the COVID-19 pandemic caused a decline in donations over the past two years, donations have continued to rise in all eight retail locations where the famous red kettles are located. Donations will be accepted until Christmas Eve, with kettles located in area shopping hubs supported by close to a dozen volunteers.
“As far as the kettles go, I think we’re doing a lot, lot better than we did last year, COVID didn’t help us, in fact, it slowed us down,” said Smith. “For a change, we have an upswing going so that’s good,” he said.
Salvation Army Red Kettles are located at both Morgantown Area Walmarts, three Kroger locations, two Giant Eagle locations, and the Bass Pro Shop located at the WestRidge Business Park, across the street from the University Town Center. According to Smith, eight to twelve Salvation Army employees will be at the locations from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. up until Christmas Eve, where they will keep working to move farther ahead of last year’s donation totals.
“All of our locations, even the ones where we haven’t been able to ring at have been super, super generous enough to let us come and make an appearance with our bell ringers,” said Smith. “We appreciate every single one of them for allowing us to do it.”
Proceeds from the Salvation Army Red Kettle Campaign will be used to support the numerous programs that are used by hundreds of Morgantown Area residents. One that was highlighted by Smith was the Salvation Army’s use of the Hope Cafe at Hazel’s House of Hope on Scott Avenue, which serves dinners on a nightly basis. The funds will also support their local food bank as well as the delivery of meals around North Central West Virginia.
“It goes into our programs that we have, like our Hope Cafe, our food pantry,” said Smith. “We hope, later next year, is to create food boxes (to send) into Preston County, Taylor County, and Marion County and help folks there.”
Smith also mentioned that they are still expecting the traditional $1,000 mystery donor to make their appearance, despite the person not showing up in 2022 due to the subzero temperatures that occurred during Christmas weekend. Not only are they expecting the traditional donation, but Smith also expects crews that were not out at their locations last year due to frigid cold temperatures to be out this year up until Christmas Eve. The hope is that they continue to collect donations and add to the improving numbers, with help from the community the Salvation Army aims to serve.
“Our increase in our donations, I think comes from, not only the desire for us to be able to be better, but also the recognition that we are striving to be better for this community,” said Smith.