2009 Winter Newsletter

Red Kettle Campaign

Our Red Kettle Campaign covered new ground
this year—virtually, not literally.We added
cellular text message donations to our typical
donation collections.That means people who
no longer carry cash to pay for their purchases
could still contribute to the kettle campaign
by sending a text
message toThe Salvation
Army in Greater
Columbus.We received
a good response considering
this was a new
promotion. If you have
ideas on how to continue
to encourage text
donations throughout
the year or to announce
the opportunity to a
large group, please
contact Alice Hohl at 614.437.2138
or Alice.Hohl@SalvationArmy.org.
It’s not too late to make a text donation
by sending a text message to 90999.
The message should read: KETTLE.
The Red Kettle campaign also benefitted
from the addition of Celebrity Bell Ringers.
These includedThe Ohio State University
Men’s Hockey Team,members of The Ohio
State UniversityMarching Band, six Columbus
Blue Jackets players and mascot Stinger,
media giants
Angela Pace,
Gail Hogan,
Monica Day,
husband-wife teamMarcus Thorpe and
MikaelaHunt, and local bloggerWalker Evans.
But the most exciting Celebrity Bell Ringers
were themost competitive.This year a Salvation
Army volunteer coordinated a “duel” between
Kevin DeWine, the head
of the Ohio Republican
Party and Chris Redfern,
the head of the Ohio
Democratic Party.The
two are friends, and
engaged in a great rivalry.
Each party raised more
than $300 in their kettle
in two hours, and together
they raised more
than $1,500 online!
In the end, Republicans
edged outDemocrats by a few hundred dollars,
and all the funds went toThe Salvation Army
inGreater Columbus, to support local programs
and neighborhood centers.
We had many wonderful volunteers this year,
but we still would like to increase the proportion
of kettles staffed by volunteers next year.
Please mark your calendars for November of
2009, and coordinate a group of friends or
colleagues who can staff a kettle once a week
during the Christmas season.Thanks to all who helped us collect a total of $535,224!

Kevin DeWine, head of the Ohio Republican
Party, shakes hands withMajor Frank Kirk
in front of the Statehouse.