By By JONATHAN CLAYBORNE
Staff Writer
This year’s first donation to the local Salvation Army Red Kettle fundraising drive was made anonymously.
On Friday morning, a man slipped the campaign’s first dollar bill into the familiar red kettle in front of Belk in Washington.
The donor declined to give his name, but he did share a smile and a joke with volunteer bell-ringer Heidi Smith, who’s also chairwoman of the area Salvation Army advisory board.
Among the first contributors was Washington’s Ellen Smith, who stopped by after a shopping trip to the strip mall.
“I gave today because I never know if I will be in need of anything — food, whatever,” Smith said. “It’s a good organization, helping people that can’t afford it or have a disaster in life.”
The kettle drive encompasses a number of fundraising programs designed to help the needy, said Maj. Dan Whittaker of the area Salvation Army corps.
According to the Salvation Army’s national Web site, “Donations provide Christmas dinners, clothing and toys for families in need.”
As of Friday morning, the corps had about 490 needy children on a Christmas-gift list, said Whittaker.
The gift portion of the program likely will serve 600 children before season’s end, he said.
“We’re really, really anticipating a severe need this year,” said Smith.
The corps serves Hyde, Bertie, Martin, Tyrrell, Beaufort and Washington counties, Smith said, adding that some of those counties are among the poorest in North Carolina.
The corps’ kettle drive raised about $49,000 in 2008, Whittaker related. That figure stunned staff and volunteers who were expecting significantly smaller returns during an economic decline.
“I think a lot of folks realized that there were going to be a lot of folks in need,” Smith commented.
The Washington Salvation Army unit is seeking more bell-ringers to staff kettles from the hours of 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Whittaker said.
If enough volunteer bell-ringers aren’t lined up, the unit will have to pay workers to fill the gap, which will result in fewer dollars reaching the people who benefit from the drive, he said.
Smith and Whittaker said that among the most-frequent givers to the kettle drive are people who clearly are in need, although someone did drop a $1,000 check into one of the kettles last year.
“I think one of the things that always startles me are the number of children that want to put something in the kettle,” Whittaker said.
For more information about the kettle drive or the programs it funds, call the Salvation Army’s Washington office at 946-2523.