Every year around the holiday season if you go to the mall, a department store, or a grocery store you are sure to hear the bells ringing and see the red kettles for The Salvation Army.
The red kettles are one of The Salvation Army’s ways of raising money for families in our area. The Salvation Army in Roanoke said it is seeing just as many families needing help as it did a year ago. It is also seeing more families needing assistance that didn’t before the pandemic.
The Salvation Army in Roanoke and in Lynchburg is strongly encouraging people to volunteer because it can use all the help it can get. If it doesn’t raise enough money this holiday season, it could run low on funds to help the community.
“We need as many people that are willing to stand out in any winter elements and have a good time. Ring that bell, sign up church youth groups, sign up their companies, maybe do a little competition between one company to another,” said Captain Jamie Clay from The Salvation Army.
The amount of money raised with kettles directly affects how many families it can serve throughout the next year. In Roanoke, the red kettles will go out this Thursday and on Dec. 13 in Lynchburg. The Salvation Army will stay out until Christmas Eve.
If you would like to volunteer in another way, The Salvation Army also has its Angel Tree campaign. The Angel Tree at River Ridge Mall went out yesterday and the one at Valley View Mall goes up on Thursday.
Angel Trees provide a chance to help out a local family this Christmas. Each tree has tags on it that represent a child in need. On the tag, you will find a list of possible gifts that you could buy.
The Salvation Army said it needs volunteers to help out and make sure every tag is accounted for. It also needs volunteers to help sort and distribute the gifts.
“It is where really a volunteer can engage with their community that they are helping because they will see the faces of that family member that asked for that help and be able to wish them a Merry Christmas,” said Clay.
You can also be a corporate sponsor for an Angel Tree. This means that your business will provide gifts for 10 tags.
The Roanoke Salvation Army said it is like to usually have about 75% of their angel pre-adopted through corporate sponsorship. That means it would need about 25 sponsorships and right now it has five or six.
If you would like some more information about volunteering, click here.