Salvation Army red kettle campaign reaches its goal

Posted on December 26, 2014

The Salvation Army has surpassed its goal of $230,000 for the annual red kettle campaign. (WJBC file photo)

By Joe Ragusa

BLOOMINGTON – A big jump in donations at the end of the annual red kettle campaign this year helped the Salvation Army of McLean County meet its goal.

Spokeswoman Angie Fulton said they received around $12,000 in donations on the final day of the campaign Wednesday.

"A typical day is maybe $7-to-$8,000, and anything above $10,000 is an awesome day," Fulton said. "Christmas Eve, we actually rang (bells) a bit shorter, typically we ring until 8 p.m., but Christmas Eve, we rang until 6 p.m."

A record-$14,000 was raised Tuesday. In total, the red kettle campaign raised a little over $131,000, $1,000 over its goal.

"We're just really grateful that the community heard our plea and was able to support us and help us to achieve that goal," Fulton said. "We were a little worried for a while there, but this last week we had the kettles out, we really saw a spike in the numbers and we were just so excited that McLean County stepped up."

Fulton said the mail-in donation campaign is at $195,000, which is $45,000 short of its goal, but Fulton said they typically see a lot of donations come in during January.

Joe Ragusa can be reached at [email protected].

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