ESTEVAN - A late surge in donations allowed the Estevan Salvation Army to eclipse its fundraising goal for the 2023 Christmas campaigns.
Community ministries director Ronza Reynard said the community donated $131,500 through the kettle campaign and Christmas letter appeal, which surpassed the combined goal of $125,000. The kettles generated $31,500, which was higher than the goal of $25,000, while the mail-ins fetched approximately $100,000, which matched their objective.
"We were a little nervous getting up to Christmas because we were still a ways away [from our goal], but in just that last weekend before Christmas and the week after Christmas, some donations came in," said Reynard.
On Dec. 22, the ministry was about $14,000 shy of the $125,000 mark, but they knew they still had a couple of days for kettles and a few days for donations to be mailed in.
The Salvation Army had lots of people volunteering with the kettles. Each year they have a few hiccups trying to ensure they have the right volunteers in the right places, but overall the helpers did well, Reynard said. Kettles were stationed at various locations in the community from Dec. 1-24.
"There's a huge need in our community for the Salvation Army, for the food bank, for our backpack programs, for sending kids to camp … and our senior's lunches. When we have a successful campaign, it makes it a little easier to plan our year, moving forward, of what we're going to do, where we need to make changes."
The food bank will be the Salvation Army's top priority because it sees the most activity, she said. The Salvation Army received 13,000 pounds of food in the weeks prior to Christmas, ensuring the shelves are full to start 2024.
"The stuff that we have in there will take us through a couple of months, and that helps offset some of the costs as well if we can keep up with the demand," said Reynard.
Food hampers that were filled at Sobeys were to be dropped off on Friday, adding to the stocks. The Salvation Army isn't lacking in anything, she said, so any purchases it makes in the coming weeks will be fresh items they purchase on a weekly basis to round out hampers.
The Salvation Army benefitted from the December stop for the CPKC Holiday Train and the Christmas Eve Burn Out Hunger event, when Santa Claus performed on a Harley Davidson on an elevated platform. The latter event brought in 1,500 pounds of food and $2,400 in donations.
New for this year was Food Champions in November. Businesses collected food and took photos. Siever, Fonstad and Erdman chartered accountants won the competition. Other businesses had their own food drives.
"We're always busy with hampers," she said. "The time of year does not matter now."
There are a lot of people in Estevan who need a little extra help with their food budget and with groceries, Reynard said.
"We always say to people 'We're not supplying all of their groceries. This is an emergency food hamper to get you to whatever it is you need to get to, or to help offset the cost of something,'" said Reynard.
"We're still seeing lots of people every … day, every week. And that number just keeps going up. It's surprising how many people in a week will phone us who have never used a food bank, and it's great that people will make that call, set up an appointment, come in and see our family services worker, and let us help them out."
Reynard said the Salvation Army knows times are tight for people in the Estevan area, so she is grateful for the support of the community before Christmas and throughout the year.
