(Submitted photo/Anthony Corea)

By Elliott Knopp

Kettle Campaign

Salvation Army kettle campaign endures harsh conditions, health concerns

Jan 4, 2022 | 12:44 PM

Extreme weather conditions and public health concerns weren’t enough to stop the community of Meadow Lake and the surrounding area from supporting an annual tradition.

The Meadow Lake Salvation Army branch reported more than $7,500 was raised from this year’s run with their signature kettle campaign.

The total amount of donations collected has not been finalized as there were multiple aspects playing a role in fundraising, but the figure does represent the total from all of the kettles.

In an interview meadowlakeNOW, auxiliary captain Glenna Cryderman said while the figures fell short of last year’s donations, they were successful in surpassing the 2019 totals.

“We managed to get done what we needed to get done,” she said.

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The campaign also saw the implementation of a new donation collection system that allowed people to make contributions of $5, $10 or $20 by tapping a payment card against a card reader.

Cryderman said despite the new addition, which was requested by some donors in previous years, the new system fell short of expectations.

“Even though people were saying they wish they had it, it didn’t do as well as we had hoped,” she said.

Even though the human interaction element remained present with the new device, it seemingly wasn’t enough to draw interest from the public.

“We never had the machine out without people there. I don’t really know why it didn’t do as well as as anticipated, but it didn’t seem to do as well as we thought it would.”

This year, volunteers were required to have at least two COVID-19 vaccinations. Cryderman explained this stipulation added another challenge to the kettle drive in filling the roster.

“That was a little bit tougher for us,” she stated.

“A person who generally volunteers was not able to this year, but we had great support, so all of that is so very helpful for us.”

With a boost in support helping collect funds, the helping hand proved to be crucial as Cryderman added the demand for assistance from families saw an increase as well.

“There are a lot more families this year. There were close to 95 by the time we were done with the hampers.”

Cryderman said at the end of it all, this year’s fundraising efforts wrapped up another successful run.

“Thank you to the Meadow Lake community and surrounding area for your great support again this year.”

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elliott.knopp@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @ElliottKnopp