NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Major Paul James with the Salvation Army in Hutchinson is clear. The need is still great, and they actually are still behind their goal in fundraising and have been since last year.
"I don't think we've received less donations," James said. "I think just the dollar amount of those donations have shrank, and so it's hard. We've cut staff to continue to try to serve the most people that we can or hours of our staff. We're a skeleton crew at The Salvation Army, so we ask for your patience for that. But our heart is to, how can we serve those in need? It's hard to turn people away. We're looking forward to doing our best again this year."
They are also looking for volunteers, if you don't have extra cash to give, but do have time available.
"Have a heart for people, that's the number one," James said. "You don't want a grouch to meet you at the door. That's really a big part of it, just you have a heart for people. That matters the most. We have different opportunities, whether it's answering a phone, if you have a financial background, we, as you know, you mentioned it for me as well. We serve, I think we're about 90 individuals that we are the representative payee. We manage their bills. We make sure they have spending money. We balance all that, make sure they're in a house and all those things are covered and their bills are paid on time. That takes up a bulk of a lot of my staff's time is just managing that. We have one less staff member. So now we're all, how can we make that work? If you have a financial background and you're retired and you're like, you know, I have time to spend. And actually one of our staff members, she was retired and then she hired on with us part-time and she's amazing with that. If you have that, but if you can shake your hand, we have bell ringing opportunities coming up soon."
You can sign up to ring bells at registertoring.com.