Kettle Donations: Gifts ignite furnaces
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 prevent families from going without heat during winter.
Salvation Army operation centers across Minnesota and North Dakota provide heating assistance to thousands, including low-income seniors, disabled people, and virtually anybody experiencing an unexpected financial emergency. Your pocket change and folded bills help them pay for natural gas, oil, propane and electricity.
These services are a godsend to families like Melvin, Kimi and their daughter Mikaila (pictured). After Kimi’s paycheck was stolen, the family went without heat for 10 days. They were denied assistance by several agencies. Thankfully, The Salvation Army was able to pay what the family could not afford.
“The help (The Salvation Army) gave us was the boost we needed to get back on track,” Melvin said.
Another service: energy counseling. At The Salvation Army in Brainerd, Minn., for example, Family Services Director Carole Paschelke (pictured) is constantly reminding guests to refill their propane tanks before prices spike during winter.
“I educate people ahead of time to prepay and lock-in at a lower rate,” she said, noting that weekly propane prices doubled and even tripled during stretches of winter 2013/2014.
In Minnesota alone, The Salvation Army has provided nearly $40 million worth of emergency heat assistance since 1982.
2015 kettle season
A new kettle season officially begins the day after Thanksgiving, with select kettle locations beginning slightly 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 heat the homes of families 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 – close to half of what it costs to heat a home for a month during winter.