“I participated in a campaign on behalf of Influence Central for The Salvation Army. I received a promotional item as a thank you for participating.”

‘Tis the season to be giving and what better way to give than to The Salvation Army. I’m sure you’ve seen people ringing their bells near that red kettle.

This is one of the oldest and biggest providers. Established in London in 1865, The Salvation Army has been serving people for about 150 years internationally and over 130 years in the United States.

Here are few great facts about The Salvation Army.

•  “In 2013, The Salvation Army’s 3,600 officers, 59,000 employees, and 3.4 million volunteers served nearly 30 million American in need.  That’s almost one person, every second, every day.”
• “The Army has nearly 7,600 centers of operation covering nearly every zip code in the country.”

How did The Army’s Red Kettle start? In December of 1891, The Salvation Army’s Captain McFee decided to provide Christmas dinner to the poor. He needed to raise money and put with the approval from the authorities, he place a large pot on the Oakland Ferry Landing in San Francisco. By Christmas of 1895 there were 30 Salvation Army locations.

You can help online or via text messaging! Anyone can become a virtual bell ringer and raise money for their local communities by creating an Online Red Kettle at onlineredkettle.org.” Or “Donors can text the word “KETTLE” to 80888 to make a $10 donation to support the campaign.” End of the year giving is extremely popular and is also tax deductible with the proper documentation, please make your donation by December 31, 2014.

I believe giving is very important throughout the year, however around the holiday’s it seems a bit more meaningful to my family.  I look at what I have and wish that for everyone, I have meals on the table and a loving, healthy family. With a 6 year old daughter it’s sometimes hard for her to understand the real meaning of Christmas. I really have instilled that Christmas is not all about gift, but, giving and thoughtfulness.

Please visit The Salvation Army at RedKettleReason.org.

#RedKettleReason #Sponsored #MC