Salvation Army kicks off their Christmas Kettle Campaign

The Salvation Army recently launched its 2023 Christmas Kettle Campaign at the Cornwall Centre in Regina.

Donations gathered from the campaign help to support the organization’s Christmas assistance programs and year-round programs and services, including clothing, homelessness prevention, community meals and housing resources. The Christmas Kettle Campaign is one of Canada’s largest and most recognizable annual charitable events.

There are more than 2,000 kettle locations across Canada that support a wide range of Salvation Army programs. Lieutenant Tim Fraser, who hosted the event at the Cornwall Centre, said the organization exceeded its goal for last year.

“Our goal last year was $240,000. We were actually able to exceed our goal and raise just over $247,000,” said Fraser.

Fraser said the organization runs strictly on support from volunteers.

“We rely only on volunteers; every person that stands on this kettle is a volunteer, and they’ve given up their time to be able to allow us to earn some donations. We have 17 locations, and we are out for at least 6 hours a day, relying on those volunteers to step up and give up their time.

“Volunteers are in short supply, and we’ve run into situations where we’ve already lost a few volunteers due to illness, due to not being able to give back in that way anymore, so we’re really looking forward to having some new volunteers come on, (we’re) looking at the younger generation and how we can encourage them to recognize how important the salvation army is in this community,” said Fraser.

This year’s kettle campaign goal is $250,000.

Regina Mayor Sandra Masters also attended the event at the Cornwall Centre. She said the organization takes care of a lot of the essentials people need in the city.

“It’s food, it’s clothing, it’s shelter; it’s all done with dignity and passion,” Masters said. “… It’s one of our oldest community-based organizations in the city; it’s been doing great work for over a hundred years here, and we hope we get a hundred more,” said Masters.

Those wishing to make a donation to the Salvation Army’s kettle campaign can do so with either cash or credit card at the organization’s kettles, or they can also make a donation online by going to havenofhope.ca.