It’s not Fred Brade’s first time manning a Salvation Army Christmas kettle.
And he says it won’t be the last.
“Oh for sure, yeah for sure. I’ll do it every year,” Brade said,, adding, “I’m a snowbird so we haven’t gone down yet.”
Brade is spending several hours helping out with the annual Salvation Army fundraiser, geared towards helping those without a roof over their heads.
The retired oilpatch company owner’s main reason for ringing the kettle bells for the last 6 years or so is family.
“Well it goes back a long way with my father, who was in the second world war, and he was on the front lines. And he would always tell us the Salvation Army was with him all the time. And every time he went by a kettle he would always drop money in,” Brade said.
His kettle is one of 10 scattered around Medicine at for the annual Christmas campaign, with more on the way.
“If you go by Fifth Avenue United Church location.. there’s a lineup at noon hour, at supper time,” Brade said.
He’s one of about 80 volunteers on the kettle campaign this year, with the money going towards programs like the Salvation Army’s meals, and it’s homeless shelter, which is more active now that it’s colder.
A total of 20 residents are staying at the shelter, up from about six in the summer
“It’s not just people who are homeless there are other people who are going through other problems in their lives that they can’t go home so,” said Capt. David Dale with the Salvation Army.
Kettle cash also goes to the resource centre, where people can get out of the cold. Alberta Health recently giving permission to allow more people inside.
“Up until now we weren’t allowed to have more than 18 people inside in our resource centre which is open in the daytime and we would just be able to provide shelter for clients staying at the shelter,” Dale saio.
The Salvation Army is hoping to raise $300.000 with it’s kettles this year
“We’ve been doing pretty well, but there’s a way to go so we’re expecting the community’s gonna support (us) because the community’s been very good to us. They’ve helped us year after year,” Dale said.
With about two weeks left in the kettle campaign, and about a quarter of their goal raised, Dale’s hoping more dollars will end up in kettles set up around Medicine Hat.
