COLUMBUS – Red kettles are hanging – literally and virtually – at dozens of locations around central Ohio as the Salvation Army continues its 125-year holiday-season tradition of collecting cash to help poor and homeless children and adults.
The organization will be trying to raise $ 625,000 in traditional red kettles at 81 locations, staffed with the familiar bell-ringing volunteers, in Franklin, Delaware and Union Counties between now and Christmas Eve but also hopes to add another $100,000 through a mobile “virtual” red kettle program that will accept donations online and via text message through January, said Major Debra Ashcraft, Area co-coordinator for The Salvation Army in Central Ohio.
Donate to The Salvation Army in Central Ohio online at salvationarmycentralohio.org or TEXT “Central Ohio” to 71777
“The traditional kettle has been kind of flat, yet the need continues to increase and the Salvation Army just has to be able to raise more resources,” she said.
The Salvation Army help People served 109,000 people in 2014 and 123,000 last year at its shelters, food pantries and through other services.
The organization says 86 cents of every dollar raised through the Red Kettle Campaign, which began Nov. 19, goes for programs like the Adult Rehabilitation Centers, emergency disaster services, meals for children, families and homeless adults; housing assistance, aid for victims of human trafficking, after school learning centers for children and career enhancement programs for adults.