CHICOPEE, mass. (mass appeal)-annual Red Kettle campaign, signature fundraising initiatives for over 100 years, wishing to make contributions easier this holiday season with the help of the latest technology. Salvation Army command of Major Thomas Perks joined us today to tell us how we can contribute to this amazing program.
In 1891, Salvation Army Captain Joseph McFee was distraught because so many people are poor in San Francisco’s hungry. During the holiday season, he decided to give away free Christmas dinner for the poor and poverty. He only has one major hurdle to overcome–funding the project.
Where the money comes from, he wondered. He lay awake nights, worrying, thinking, praying about how he was able to find the funds to meet the commitment to eat 1,000 poorest individuals on Christmas day. As he was pondering the issue, his thoughts drifting back to the days of seamen in Liverpool, United Kingdom. He recalled how at stage landing, where the ship came, there was a large iron Kettle called “Simpson’s Pot” into passing a throw a coin or two to help the poor.
The next day Captain McFee placed the same pot at Oakland Ferry landing at the foot of Market Street. In addition to the pot, he placed a sign which reads, “Keep the pot boiling.” He soon had the money to see poor people fed up with true on Christmas day.
Six years later, the kettle idea spread from the West Coast to the Boston area. That year, the combined efforts of the national results in 150,000 Christmas dinners for the poor. In 1901, kettle contributions in New York City provides funding to first sits a giant dinner at Madison Square Garden, a habit that continues for many years. Today in the USA, The Salvation Army helped over a period of four and a half million people during the Thanksgiving and Christmas.