Salvation Army kettle campaign back for another holiday season

With the holiday season in full swing, so too is the Salvation Army’s annual Christmas kettle campaign.

Despite having 17 collection locations and over 300 volunteers working them, Saskatoon’s kettle campaign is falling behind the mark set last year.

“We’re doing pretty well, unfortunately compared to last year at this point we are 11 per cent down with our donations,” said the Salvation Army’s community outreach coordinator, Erin Haaland.

Even before this year’s low donation numbers, Haaland said they have been trying to incorporate more ways people can donate.

“We have actually added four debit machines this year so we are trying to bridge that gap there,” she said about less people carrying cash these days.

“Of course there is always a learning curve with our volunteers and you know it’s only available in four spots right now but for people that are unable to donate cash we do have that option now.”

Haaland said they are using these four debit machines as a trial run this year with the idea to increase the amount in coming years.

She hopes that the last few days before Christmas provides enough donations from last minute shoppers to drive their donations up closer to last year’s levels.

Along with accepting cash and debit donations they also accept online donations at salvationarmy.ca. According to Haaland, you can select the area your donation goes to so you can ensure your money goes to your community.