The annual Salvation Army Red Kettle campaign, which kicked off almost a month ago in Aurora and Naperville and about a week later in the Tri-Cities area, is once again struggling to meet its financial goals with less than two weeks left before collections end on Christmas Eve.
Area representatives with the Salvation Army say donations are below totals from a year ago at this time and that the wintry weather, a lack of volunteers and shoppers not carrying cash are to blame for the shortfall.
In the Tri-Cities area which includes St. Charles, Batavia and Geneva, administrative struggles back in November prevented officials like Joe Alvarez of St. Charles, a lieutenant with the Tri-City Salvation Army Corps, from getting enough bell ringers out as early as their Aurora area counterparts who started on Nov. 14.
On Tuesday, Alvarez said the Red Kettle drive in the Tri-Cities started on Nov. 22 and despite having a goal this year of $150,000 the total collection to date stands at about $22,000.
“Donations this year are less than they were last year at this point where we had about $30,000 so we’re about $8,000 short at this point,” Alvarez said.
Donations have fallen, Alvarez said, “because of changes with consumers and not having cash on hand.”
“We do receive a lot of donations in the mail with checks so those are doing very well, but I hear all the time from our ringers that people don’t have cash even though we have the QR code on the kettles,” he said as far as offering a digital option for giving. “This was supposed to make things easier a few years ago when it was introduced. People aren’t using those and the fact is they don’t carry cash anymore.”
Salvation Army Major Corps Officer Joaquin Rangel, who oversees the Aurora Salvation Army center that serves the Naperville and Aurora areas, said collections, while down, are closer to last year’s totals.
“At this point, things have been slow. Through Monday we are at $53,122 which is about the same as last year when we were about $2,000 ahead of that,” Rangel said. “Our problem is needing more workers. We have a handful of people from previous years and we’re so grateful for that, but we do need more workers.”
He said bell ringers are needed to cover all the locations targeted for the drive.
“We have 20 spots and the majority of them have two doors at Walmart and such, but we are only able to cover one door and at some of the spots we don’t cover them at all,” he said. “We do not have enough workers. If we did, the odds would be we’d have more money too.
“I also think that weather has played a part in this, but the biggest problem is not having enough help,” he said. “If we had a bigger team we’d be doing a lot better.”
Rangel said the group suffered a loss “on the volunteer side of things this season.”
More Top Picks Best Smart Locks For Front Door
“We used to have this group that called themselves The Pioneer Ringers based in Naperville who covered almost all our weekends,” he said. “They all are retired people from AT&T and Illinois Bell but their leader, who was also retired, stepped down and there was nobody to follow him and they raised big money at Casey’s, one of our big stores in Naperville. That is making an impact on this season.”
Regarding bell ringers, Alvarez said the Tri-City Salvation Army is doing OK.
“Out of about 1,500 available hours that we have for all the shifts, all the locations, we’re currently sitting at about 950 (hours) reserved,” he said. “If you look at our board its pretty full but it only accounts for a two-hour shift here, a two-hour shift there. We have plenty of other shifts for other days that are open.”
Alvarez said the early snowfalls this season haven’t helped the Red Kettle campaign.
“The first big snowfall we had I was driving around town just looking at the kettles and there was hardly any traffic out on Black Friday weekend,” he said. “This is one of our biggest weekends and the snow didn’t help.”
Area Salvation Army leaders are hoping for a bounce in donations as the holiday season moves along and agreed that the closer people get to Christmas, the more they give.
In St. Charles Tuesday morning, Kevin Stiritz was working outside the Jewel Food Store at 625 Kirk Road ringing the bell for the Red Kettle campaign.
Reporting for duty at 10 a.m., he said he had received no donations at all during the first 40 minutes of work.
“I had a good time last year and when it gets closer to Christmas, it gets crazy. The conversations are good,” he said. “I just enjoyed it. Collections are probably lower because of weather but on the weekends, I do very, very well but so far, I haven’t raised a dime today. But I know with Christmas coming, there will be a bump.”
Alvarez noted that a bright spot for the Tri-Cities group will be coming from local restaurant and ice cream shop Colonial Cafe which “will be doing a matching funds day for us this Saturday.”
Rangel also noted there is some good news on the annual toy collection front, as the Aurora Salvation Army unit has received enough toys to help “more than 1,300 children.”
“That’s a lot of kids and we do have some who are on a waiting list who we will be able to provide toys for too,” he said.
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.