Salvation Army in Ottawa, La Salle-Peru donations down this holiday season

Contributions, volunteers needed to reach assistance goals

Jacob Robinson a bell ringer with The Salvation Army, stands in front of Handy Foods on Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024 in Ottawa. Robinson has been volunteering with the Salvation Army for six years.

It is the duty and the pleasure of The Salvation Army to offer help and support wherever and whenever it can.

To complete that mission this holiday season, however, the organization is in need of assistance.

Lt. Wayne Strayer, corps officer and pastor at the Corps Center located at 516 W. Madison St. in Ottawa, said both donations and volunteer bell ringers for The Salvation Army’s Red Kettle Drive are down for the season.

The drive, Strayer said, usually has taken in about $37,000 by this close to Christmas, but it’s now at $30,000, leaving it in danger of coming up short of its goal of $70,000 to help what has become a record number of requests for assistance.

And those requests come from all over northern La Salle County down to Grand Ridge, including the La Salle-Peru area.

“We’re really hurting for donations this year,” Strayer said. “It seems like donations are just down this year for some reason. … We’re quite a bit down from where we should be at this time. In fact, we’re not even halfway to our goal.

“We’re hoping for a big boost next week. We typically see more volunteers that last week before Christmas, too, so we’re hoping that will happen. We’ll be out there up until 2 p.m. on Christmas Eve, so anything will help. I always suggest that every time you see a bucket, donate something. Every time someone walks by and donates, it makes a huge difference.”

Strayer said the Angel Tree Program, which provides toys for children, this year has “just exploded,” going from an average of about 130 families each year over the last three years to 169 families and more than 400 kids. That has left the organization scrambling to get presents in time for Christmas.

But that just touches the surface of what The Salvation Army does this time of year.

There also are 30 families it supports each month through its Pathways to Hope Program, which offers assistance with utilities, living expenses and supplemental food.

Each year, the organization delivers $6,000 in food vouchers for Christmas dinners. Plus, there are more than 500 nursing home residents it tries to help in whatever way possible during the holidays.

“This is our biggest and busiest time of year,” Strayer said, “and [the drive] a big part of our operating budget.”

Unfortunately, like donations, the number of volunteers also is in decline, including bell ringers. Strayer originally had seven bell ringers on hand but is down to one full-time and two part-time ringers who he has to pay for their time. He is hopeful that the spirit of the holidays will move others to take a shift whenever they can.

“I had a lot of bell ringers initially, some of them regulars that we had every year,” Strayer said, “but that number has shrunk – people that have moved away or decided that they were tired of doing it after so many years. That leaves me with plenty of slots for volunteers who would like to donate a couple of hours here or there, whenever they can.”

To make donating easier, The Salvation Army office is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and can be reached at 815-433-0798 for those wishing to volunteer.

Also, it now has QR codes on its stands and on its Facebook page for people to take advantage to try and make Christmas better for everyone.

“We have a lot of people that are hurting for Christmas,” Strayer said, “so if people would donate, we’d greatly appreciate it. That way we can continue to serve the people we are serving.”

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