'A giving community'

For many, it’s the most wonderful time of the year, but for others, it’s not so merry. That’s why The Salvation Army provides a number of assistance programs to a large number of underprivileged citizens throughout the holiday.

These programs are established to help people of every age and help them overcome challenges, but the service programs could not exist if it weren’t for the generous donations of the people and the Red Kettle Campaign.

The Salvation Army sometimes goes unnoticed until the holiday season arrives, but now is a crucial time to the existence of the organization as it looks to budget for all its services throughout the year.

Red Kettle Campaign

The goal of this year’s Christmas season goal is to raise $119,000 to continue to remain a self-sustaining service organization. The goal includes both kettle and mail contributions as well as other donations. The Red Kettle Campaign goal in Newton is $35,000, and the rest of the fundraising comes from financial donations.

“This money that comes in during the Christmas season supports our normal activities as well as allows us to maintain services year round as well,” Major Mikey Carter said. “We have a few other small fundraisers and we get some grants but this is our single largest fundraiser of the year. It’s a critical time for us and it’s vital that we achieve our goal here.”

Last year, The Salvation Army met its Christmas season goal, which equals about one-third of the organizations annual income.

Civic groups, churches, clubs, student groups contributing volunteer hours for the Kettle Campaign. In fact, there’s a fierce, friendly rivalry between the Rotary Club and the Kiwanis Club to see which group can raise the most money from bell ringing.

Bell ringing takes place at five locations in Newton — Fareway, Hy-Vee, Farver True Value, Theisens and Wal-Mart — between Nov. 21 and Dec. 24 except for Thanksgiving and Sundays. Wal-Mart bell ringing will not begin until Nov. 27.

“The money raised helps us provide for the food pantry, utility assistance programs, and rental assistance, educational all year,” Major Jeff Carter said.

Volunteering

Many businesses, organizations, clubs, school and even families from around the county have rallied to give back to the community by giving to The Salvation Army. In 2013, the Salvation Army was lucky enough to have 61 volunteers and a total of 530 volunteer hours in the holiday campaign effort.

"The Salvation Army depends on volunteers to keep our personnel cost down so we can have more dollars put toward direct services," Mikey said.

Whether it’s helping with the pantry, packing holiday food boxes, organizing toys, or ringing bells, the volunteer efforts of the community, donations and financial gifts help the entire community, and there’s no better time to share the spirit of the season.

For those who would to volunteer, sign-up for bell ringing, or would like to talk about potential volunteer opportunities, call the Newton Salvation Army at 641-792-6131.

Food Baskets

The Salvation Army provides food baskets to families in need every month throughout the year, but in November and December they provided an additional seasonal baskets to cater to the traditional holiday meal as well as extra food items to help families get through the other days where more people might be in the household.

236 families, or about 600 individuals, have signed up to receive Thanksgiving and Christmas food assistance this year. Holiday food baskets include a meat such as chicken for smaller families and turkey for larger ones for Thanksgiving and hams for Christmas. Other meal items include green beans, cranberries, stuffing and gravy.

The Salvation Army food pantry is full of non-perishable food items, but they do have a large walk-in cooler with perishable foods, such as meat, fresh produce, eggs and milk. However, it is the non-perishable items that allow them to provide to a large number of local families.

“We do rely quite a bit on the staples like macaroni and cheese, canned soup, rice and peanut butter, which is a good source of protein,” Jeff said.

The applications for the Thanksgiving and Christmas food baskets have already been completed, but year round assistance is available and continues to accept new clients.

Christmas Toy Assistance

In addition to the food baskets, 143 children will receive toy assistance for Christmas through The Salvation Army in Newton. Toys are asked to be collected by Dec. 16 and will be distributed the following week.

Angel Tree locations will be distributed at businesses around town between Thanksgiving and Dec. 16. These trees will carry a variety of tag ornaments that include suggested gender and age (between newborn to 14 years old) for donations.

Gifts are collected and when the parents come in, they choose one gift per child that they think fits their child’s interests or need. Toys are only available for households that have already applied for seasonal assistance.

Nursing Home Visits

During the Christmas season, The Salvation Army also visits and gives a small gift to everyone at nursing homes in Newton and Baxter. Volunteers spend some time visiting with residents, specifically those who have the least amount of company. Traditional Christmas devotionals and music will be sung as well as a program if allotted.

These nursing home visits will take place in December before Christmas.

Newton Correctional Facility

The Salvation Army and the local correctional facility have paired up in efforts to help those who have been institutionalized reach out to their loved ones during the holiday season. The Salvation Army provides three cards to inmates, who have been approved to participate, and these inmates can write personal messages in them and send them out. The Salvation Army provides the cards, envelopes and postage.

"The inmates can feel these out and send to their loved ones so they can send Christmas greetings to those that they might not get to see this year," Mikey said. "We appreciate the partnership with the Newton Correctional Center."

For those interested, volunteers’ information such as full legal name and birth-date must be submitted to the NCF by The Salvation Army two weeks before card distribution.