January 2011

Your Christmas Spirit and Generosity at Overwhelming -- Thank You for Making a Difference

From all of us at The Salvation Army in Memphis, thank you for a remarkable outpouring of generosity during the 2010 Christmas season. We are blessed to be able to serve this community year-round, with a great proportion of the funding of our programs coming during the holidays. Despite a difficult economy, the Memphis community once again opened its heart to help those who are hurting. Because of you, we were able to provide services to 10,300 people during the Christmas season.

Generosity of Community Sets Record for Red Kettles

As we approached the 2010 Christmas season, we did not know what to expect in terms of people's ability to give. After all, it had been a hard economic year for many. But, with difficult economic times comes increased needs for our services. So, we set our goals high and trusted that the needs could be met.

Thanks to the support of our caring community, the 2010 Red Kettle Campaign surpassed its $480,000 goal, bringing in a remarkable $509,254.85 for those in need. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. We were overwhelmed by your generosity. This increase of more than 11 percent over last year could not be more valuable.

As in every year, this kind of result is most dramatic when you consider in comes in most cases a dollar or two at a time. For everyone who took the time to drop a dollar in a kettle, and to those who gave considerably more, know that because of you, we are able to continue sheltering the homeless and feeding the hungry 365 days a year. Your contribution touches the life of every single person who walks through our door.

A special thanks to media sponsor WREG-TV News Channel 3 and honorary spokesperson for the campaign, Tim Simpson. Tim and his team at WREG worked tirelessly to ensure that Red Kettle was 'top-of-mind" every day from November 19 through Christmas Eve. WREG-TV promoted the campaign daily and hosted two News Channel 3's Days of Ringing. On Wednesday, December 1 and Friday, December 17 WREG-TV broadcasted live all day from a kettle site to help generate awareness and donations.

Not only did the news team provide daily coverage on the Red Kettle numbers, but they ran a weekly story about some of the people personally impacted by the work of The Salvation Army in Memphis. If you missed any of their stories about The Salvation Army, please visit www.wreg.com and search Salvation Army.

It takes an army of volunteers to make the Red Kettle Campaign successful, and we appreciate every single one of the 895 volunteers who gave their time to bell-ring.

We want to particular recognize the many churches and schools who took responsibility for more than one day. For example, Germantown Baptist covered 26 Saturdays, New Hope Christian did nine days, Second Presbyterian eight days, St John's Episcopal took four and All Saints took two days. Many churches filled an entire day.

Some of the schools that covered a location for multiple days of ringing included Memphis Academy of Health Sciences (MAHS), St. George's Independent Schools, Whitehaven High School, and Millington High School.

We hope everyone who rang enjoyed the experience and we hope you will join us again in 2011.

Giving Angels Serving Angels in Need

Thanks to the generosity of thousands of individuals and corporations in our Memphis community, 2010 was a memorable Christmas for 5,446 children and seniors. For each of those individuals, Christmas might have passed without anyone showing that they care. Instead, memories were made and wishes fulfilled.

For some Angel Tree recipients, the wish is for warm clothing, a coat, shoes that fit, or a simple toy. For others, it is a Christmas dream of a shiny new bicycle. The Salvation Army Angel Tree program relies on the community's support to make theses wishes come true, and once again your support in 2010 was an amazing testament to the community we live in.

Thanks in part to the Cellular South Ben's Bikes program, a partnership between KWAM 990 radio personality Ben Ferguson and Cellular South, 1,346 new bicycles were given this year. Also thanks to Andrew Clarksenior of News Radio 600WREC, whose program Andrew's Angels, adopted angels on air.

The Salvation Army is particularly grateful to the following organizations for their financial support of the 2010 Angel Tree program: AutoZone, FedEx, International Paper, Flextronics, Technicolor, Cellular South and The Salvation Army's Women's Auxiliary. And, a special thank you goes to Carter who donated the 200,000 square foot warehouse that served as our Christmas Angel Distribution Center.

Our Angel Tree media partners provided invaluable support in sharing the Angel Tree story and generating community support for the program. Once again News Channel 3 kept the Angel Tree program in the hearts and minds of the community with daily updates and stories about the program. We are very grateful to Angel Tree spokespeople Marybeth Conley and Alex Coleman who were focused on Angel Tree throughout the season. We are also extremely grateful to WREC 600 and Rock 103 for their ongoing support and passion, especially Andrew Clarksenior, whose Andrew's Angels made an adoption possible every day on WREC 600.

And, of course, the Angel Tree program would not be possible without our mall partners who provide the locations for adoptions to take place and gifts to be dropped off: Oak Court, Wolfchase Galleria, Carrefour at Kirby Woods and Hickory Ridge Mall.

Angel Tree requires a great deal of coordination and is possible because of our amazing volunteers who help at the phone bank, client screening, working the Angel Tree tables at the malls, adopting and purchasing gifts for the angels and sorting and distributing the gifts. The work begins before the first decoration is hung in the fall, and doesn't end until the wishes come true. The 2010 statistics are staggering - 7,022 volunteers gave 23,059 hours of service. Thank you for your generosity and for helping make Christmas special for those we serve.

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