SYLACAUGA — The Salvation Army and Thrift Store are in dire need of donations after a slow holiday season.Executive director Debbie Rogers said trouble could be looming if contributions don’t pick up.
“I’ve been with the Salvation Army for 12 years now,” Rogers said. “I know I can’t go very long on where we’re at. I’ve got to get a solution to the problem.”
She said the traditional Salvation Army red kettle campaign that puts a host of bell ringers outside businesses and shopping centers around the holidays “didn’t do horrible” this year, with collections close to $14,000. But usually around $20,000 comes in once the Christmas season has passed, which adds to the organization’s contributions from the United Way and the Emergency Food and Shelter Board.
With the population and size of the city of Sylacauga, not to mention visitors, Rogers said $20,000 is not asking a lot.
“Some say it’s the economy, but I don’t know about that,” she said. “It could have just been a fluke. I don’t know.”
One major problem the group ran into with the campaign this year was a lack of volunteers. Rogers said she had to end up paying people to man the kettles because she couldn’t get enough volunteers to help out, and that might have also contributed to the problem. Rogers said typically with volunteers who have strong contact bases in the community, more money comes in simply because of camaraderie.
Tangible donations are also down as well at the Salvation Army thrift store. Rogers said no profit is made off the store, but usually any collected funds can be counted on to help pay utility bills for both the store and the service center. She said last week she went to the Talladega branch, where she is also director, and moved some merchandise from the north end to the south end to help serve shoppers.
“This has not been just one month for the store. This has been over the past several months,” she said. “Saturday they got four bags of clothes and they should have gotten 40 bags.”
While utility bills are a necessity to keep the office open, Rogers said the real strain will come if the services the Salvation Army provides have to be cut. On average, the organization helps 40 to 50 people a month, assisting with individual utility bills, rent for mortgages, medication assistance, providing disaster services and helping victims of house fires with household items, shelter and food. They also operate a small food bank.
“For anything else, if someone has true need, a true need, and I can find the money for it, we try to help them,” she said.
If the bank account continues to decrease, those numbers could drop to serving 25 to 30 people a month, Rogers said.
“It’s normally not hard to do those services and that number a month, but when it’s not there ...,” Rogers said.
The Salvation Army is working on plans to help bring in monetary and tangible donations. Rogers said she has met with the Sylacauga Ministerial Association about partnering to help and the group seemed willing and eager.
A pickup service for donations is another possibility. Rogers said she thought that might be another contributing factor to the low donations, but the Talladega branch doesn’t pick up either and goods are coming in there by the loads, she said.
Anyone interested in sending donations, either monetary contributions or thrift store items, may contact Rogers at 256-249-8720.
