On 12 Dec 1886 the Salvation Army held its first meeting west ofthe great Lakes nearby. Says so right on the plaque.
From a recent newspapaer article, a fragment of info about this first: (
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"Faith and works fill The Salvation Army's red kettles
The Thompson Citizen Mobile
November 27, 2013
The Thompson Corps of The Salvation Army had a remarkably successful Christmas Red Kettle charitable campaign last year, collecting more than $31,000, thanks to the generosity of Thompsonites and other Northern Manitobans visiting and shopping here over the holiday season. It really is an astounding figure when you think about it considering the goal was $20,000 and less than $12,000 was raised in 2011; $13,342; in 2009; and $12,486 in 2008. The Salvation Army went from having four kettles in 2011 to having seven kettles last year – five in permanent locations for the Christmas season and two others rotating to different places.
Salvation Army Maj. Betty-Lou Topping, who arrived in town in July 2012, after a two-year posting, beginning as a captain, in Campbellton, a small lumbering and fishing community located at Indian Arm on Notre Dame Bay in Newfoundland, launched this year's campaign at City Centre Mall Nov. 21, announcing a fundraising target of $25,000 – which works out to about $5,000 per weekend (when shoppers drop most of their donations, mainly in bills and loose change, although Mexican pesos, Canadian Tire money and gift certificates have also been dropped in kettles over the years) in the five weekends leading up to Christmas.
The Salvation Army kettles in the United States and Canada have also famously had unusually valuable and sentimental donations deposited over Christmas seasons past. Two Spokane, Washington-area Red Kettle drives received such surprise donations in 2011.
Inside one kettle, volunteers found a note wrapped around a coin. The note said, "I've saved this ounce of silver for twenty years, I'm unemployed for 13 months, my house is in foreclosure, I'm filing for bankruptcy and at 61 my retirement is shot but I still know there are families in worse shape."
The coin had an estimated value of $30 but The Salvation Army said it believed the message it shared is worth much more. They also received a diamond ring wrapped in a dollar bill from an anonymous donor in the Spokane area. The ring was valued at $5,000.
The Salvation Army of Aurora, Illinois, near Chicago, has received a number of anonymous South African Krugerrand gold coin donations over the last half dozen years. The coins are usually wrapped in a dollar bill and go unnoticed until the kettles are counted at the end of the evening. The gold bullion coins are legal tender, the value of which is based upon the international spot price of the metal. Krugerrands, which were valued at about $1,800 a piece last year, have fallen in value to about $1,290 each as gold prices have tumbled over the last year, but still represent a remarkable act of donor generosity.
Similar extraordinary donations have happened in Alberta. The Salvation Army bell-ringers in Brooks, a community of 13,000 people east of Calgary, discovered a solid gold coin wrapped in a $5 bill, with a note explaining the coin was worth $1,700, in December 2011. Two years earlier, in December 2009, someone dropped a gold coin worth about $1,200 into a kettle at Crossiron Mills, just north of Calgary.
While The Salvation Army hasn't reported discovering any Krugerrands in its Thompson kettles yet, the aggregate generosity of Thompsonites last year was truly remarkable.
William Booth founded The Salvation Army in London, England in 1865 on the concept of "soup, soap and salvation." Booth's vision was to share the gospel of Jesus Christ while affecting social change to improve life for England's poor.
Today, The Salvation Army, which came to Canada in 1882 and to Winnipeg on Dec. 12, 1886, is the largest non-governmental, non-profit provider of social services in Canada.
The Salvation Army red kettles have been used for more than a century to collect donations since being started by Captain Joseph McFee in San Francisco in December 1891. According to The Salvation Army records, the first kettle usage recorded in Canada was in St. John's in 1906.
On average, 87 cents of every dollar donated to the Salvation Army is used directly in charitable activities – exceeding the Canada Revenue Agency guideline of 80 per cent donation efficiency. The Salvation Army says they "strive to meet the needs of vulnerable groups and those overlooked or ignored in our communities. We make no distinction based on ethnicity or sexual orientation."
A full 30 per cent of The Salvation Army Thompson Corps emphasis – almost a third of its effort here – is on programming involving food or clothing banks, soup kitchens and hostels to achieve its charitable purposes."