This holiday season’s Red Kettle Campaign has set a new record for giving.
Donna Gestel, volunteer treasurer of the Salvation Army’s service unit in Cook County, reports, “The kettle campaign raised $12,437, our most successful season ever!” She went on to explain that even without two very generous checks in amounts unprecedented to this local service unit, it still would have been a record-making year. Those two checks came from the Bethlehem Lutheran Church Women ($1,000) and St. John’s Catholic Church ($1,485 from individual designated offerings).
The 2008 campaign raised $8,011 and the previous high was $8,340 in 2006.
Mary Sanders, Kettle Campaign coordinator, thanks all donors for their “fabulous” support. She said, “Donors are both those who give monetary gifts and those who give their gift of time to attend the kettles.” She added, “Kettle attendants are vital to the success of this campaign and more than 112 individuals helped at kettles throughout the county. Some of them rang the bell multiple times and some of them offered much-appreciated musical gifts.”
Sanders also thanked certain individuals and groups including businesses that hosted countertop or big red kettles; WTIP for air time; Pastor Kristin Garey, Gwen Lenz, Pastor Dale McIntire and Carla Menssen for organizational help; Jamie Ryan for g athe r ing the youth group as singing bell ringers; the tellers at Grand Marais State Bank who counted each kettle deposit; and holiday sales and parties that invited kettles including the Community Center Craft Sale, the Hovland Craft Sale, and the Grand Portage staff party.
Arvis Thompson, chairperson of the local service unit, said, “Economic times are not an indicator of economic generosity. As each of us experiences our own ‘hard time’ we also realize there are many less fortunate and we rise to their aid.” She invites community members to join the local service unit in planning how we’ll do “the most good” in this county.
The unit’s next meeting is 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 26 at the Senior Center. Call Thompson at (218) 387-2487 for more information.
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