Despite a slow start, the Salvation Army of Chatham-Kent was able to hit its fundraising goal this Christmas.
"Our kettles came in a $203,000, and the total for our mailout campaign and the kettles was $480,000," said Captain Stephen Holland. "So it hit our goal for the year and our budget."
Holland said some of the money raised goes to fill food and toy hampers.
"Christmastime alone, it costs us thousands of dollars for the food, and we still have to buy toys, and there's a lot of stuff we have to do."
Around 800 Christmas hampers were handed out this year by the Salvation Army. But most of the money is used throughout the year.
"The majority of it is held out for the rest of the year for people for housing, for emergency services," said Holland. "Whether it's a place to live, or utilities, or food, or there's lots of things people have emergencies for, so we try to meet their need."
Holland added that none of this would be possible without the volunteers.
"We had a lot of volunteers, I think our Chatham office had close to 100 new volunteers this year," added Holland. "Without our volunteers, obviously we wouldn't be able to do anything. I'd like to thank everybody who donated, and all those who gave their time to stand at a kettle, help pack a box, or whatever they did for us, we really appreciate it. Coming in the spring we'll have a volunteer appreciation night."
