Nat’l Salvation Army Week, Part IV: Rehabilitation
National Salvation Army Week is May 9–15. To celebrate, The Salvation Army Northern Division will publish a special story every day of the event. Each story will highlight a topic or service that illustrates how The Salvation Army is Doing the Most Good® in Minnesota and North Dakota.
Before you read anything more, please watch this emotional video:
The video is true. When you shop at or donate to Salvation Army stores in Minnesota and North Dakota, you give happiness to people who once had nothing to smile about.
All store proceeds fund vital Salvation Army programs that change lives. In the Twin Cities, proceeds fund The Salvation Army Rehabilitation Center in Minneapolis. In North Dakota and Greater Minnesota, proceeds fund local Salvation Army programs that provide food, clothing, counseling, shelter, and other critical services for people and families in need.
The rehabilitation center is on par with respected addiction counseling centers that can cost tens of thousands of dollars per month. But thanks to our store donors and shoppers, the center’s rehabilitation services are free.
The center offers inpatient addiction counseling for up to 130 men. For six months to a year, the men receive room, board, addiction counseling, and spiritual guidance. They also receive “work therapy” for up to eight hours a day. This work typically involves behind-the-scenes jobs at our stores, allowing the men to recreate what regular employment is like while instilling in them the value and satisfaction of an honest day’s work.
The center saved Blaine, Minn. resident Justin Keene (pictured), who spent four years living out of his car, addicted to methamphetamine.
The rehabilitation center “was the best six months of my life,” Keene said. “I was set free. God has done things in my life I never could have imagined.”
In North Dakota and Greater Minnesota, we operate 22 stores whose proceeds fund Salvation Army programs in their local communities.
The Salvation Army store in Williston, N.D., for example, funds programs that support people who’ve lost their jobs or can’t find work in this boom-and-bust city.
One of those people is Leslie Penass (pictured), a single mother who benefitted from an intensive Williston Salvation Army counseling program that helped teach her how to be self-sufficient.
“I’m making the right decisions,” Penass said. “There’s nothing that can mess me up now.”
The success of Penass, Keene, and thousands of others who’ve received help from The Salvation Army is directly tied to money raised at Salvation Army stores.
“It’s a great feeling shopping at our stores,” said Lt. Col. Robert Thomson, Salvation Army Northern Division commander. “You get great deals on valuable merchandise, or tax deductions for your donations of used goods, and The Salvation Army gets to change people’s lives.”
Added proof
Want more proof that your support of Salvation Army stores changes lives? Read the jaw-dropping stories below and – at bottom – watch an emotional video about children whose parents broke their addictions with help from The Salvation Army.
A 15-year drug rampage ends: In less than a year, Casey Koerner went from being an academic standout and star athlete to a high school drop-out living with a drug dealer in a trailer park.
Divine transportation: Tom Canfield (pictured) needed a ride from a Wisconsin jail to The Salvation Army Rehabilitation Center in Minneapolis. His only hope was a stranger sitting in the jail lobby. Little did Canfield or the stranger know, their lives were linked by a near-fatal drug deal five years prior.
Kids’ powerful message: When it comes to addiction and families, children are the ones who suffer the most. The little kids in the video below explain how they felt when their parent abused drugs or alcohol, and how they feel today, now that their parent got sober through Salvation Army programs.
Please join us during National Salvation Army Week by volunteering or making a donation to support your local community.