Turlock Salvation Army Major Debi Shrum has reported that the Turlock community dropped in more money into those red kettles compared to last year and the region, despite a tough economy, while volunteers also stepped up during the holiday season.
The Turlock Salvation Army once again joined a community effort called Turlock Together to try and help those who are less fortunate during the holiday season.
With 1,232 volunteers contributing 9,856 hours of service, 1,962 families received food boxes, 812 kids under the age of 12 received toys, and 750 people were served a sit down Christmas dinner.
“We had a lot of groups such as 4-H, Boy Scouts, and churches who brought a lot of people together,” said Shrum. “It was an amazing outpouring of assistance; a great thank you goes out.”
Major Shrum said that everyone who came asking for help received it, but that there are more who probably needed help and didn’t make it in.
On top of the Turlock Together efforts, the Salvation Army Kettle fundraising drive was a succesful campaign.
Turlock was an exception to the economical impact of a decrease in donations for the Salvation Army Kettle drive’s regional efforts. Regionally, kettle donations were down 14 percent while Turlock increased by 3 percent, totaling $55,000.
The bell ringing volunteering and kettle donations were in addition to the November 16, 2010 14th Annual Kettle Kickoff luncheon where volunteer Kettle Klash teams made a mad dash around the room collecting money in the red kettles. In just minutes, Kettle Klash teams collected $85,539 from those in attendance.
“Turlock really pushed through, Turlock really gives,” said Shrum. “There are sometimes you don’t really know what to say, ‘thank you’ doesn’t seem to be enough.”
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