Thanks for all your help with the food and toy distributions
letter to the editor
To the Editor:
As the commanding officers of the Salvation Army at Wadsworth I want to say thank you to the many donors, volunteers, media outlets, businesses and my staff who all helped to make our 2016 Christmas food and toys distribution a resounding success this last Christmas season. With your help, The Salvation Army was able to help 270 households in the Wadsworth community. Your display of love and caring for those in need through the holiday season helped to not just make Christmas better for children and families, but also brought hope and encouragement to them.
With your help we were able to service 80 seniors and 244 children through Angel Tree, 60 through Adopt-a-Family and 10 through Adopt-a-Senior. Through our “Toy Shop” we distributed 241 coats, 302 clothing items, 217 hats and gloves, 151 boots, 465 miscellaneous gifts and books, 258 gift cards, 412 stocking stuffers, 1,239 toys and 180 food baskets.
It is our hope that all of these Christmas distributions will not only meet human needs, but display the love of God and need for the gospel of Jesus Christ. The food baskets we distributed included two special expressions through which the celebration of the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ and His Gospel could be experienced. Homemade cookies from the “Cookie Lady” were a way of saying “Jesus loves you” by not just buying cookies, but by making them by hand. We also placed large print Bibles in the food boxes for seniors and Children’s Story Bibles in the ones for families so that the spiritual needs of our community would also be met.
The community also helped The Salvation Army to raise $62,925.83 through our Red Kettle Campaign, with additional online giving, DipJar credit card donations and Kettle Sponsorships resulting in a grand total of $73,877 in donations. We were also blessed with food drives coordinated by local churches, organizations, businesses and individuals, including the Wadsworth City Schools food drive totaling over 38,000 donated food items. These gifts enabled us to distribute the food baskets and restock our food pantry.
It is The Salvation Army’s hope that each individual and family, with the help of our community, received faith, hope and love that has helped and changed their lives.
Lieutenants Mark and Beth Baggs
Wadsworth
As the commanding officers of the Salvation Army at Wadsworth I want to say thank you to the many donors, volunteers, media outlets, businesses and my staff who all helped to make our 2016 Christmas food and toys distribution a resounding success this last Christmas season. With your help, The Salvation Army was able to help 270 households in the Wadsworth community. Your display of love and caring for those in need through the holiday season helped to not just make Christmas better for children and families, but also brought hope and encouragement to them.
With your help we were able to service 80 seniors and 244 children through Angel Tree, 60 through Adopt-a-Family and 10 through Adopt-a-Senior. Through our “Toy Shop” we distributed 241 coats, 302 clothing items, 217 hats and gloves, 151 boots, 465 miscellaneous gifts and books, 258 gift cards, 412 stocking stuffers, 1,239 toys and 180 food baskets.
It is our hope that all of these Christmas distributions will not only meet human needs, but display the love of God and need for the gospel of Jesus Christ. The food baskets we distributed included two special expressions through which the celebration of the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ and His Gospel could be experienced. Homemade cookies from the “Cookie Lady” were a way of saying “Jesus loves you” by not just buying cookies, but by making them by hand. We also placed large print Bibles in the food boxes for seniors and Children’s Story Bibles in the ones for families so that the spiritual needs of our community would also be met.
The community also helped The Salvation Army to raise $62,925.83 through our Red Kettle Campaign, with additional online giving, DipJar credit card donations and Kettle Sponsorships resulting in a grand total of $73,877 in donations. We were also blessed with food drives coordinated by local churches, organizations, businesses and individuals, including the Wadsworth City Schools food drive totaling over 38,000 donated food items. These gifts enabled us to distribute the food baskets and restock our food pantry.
It is The Salvation Army’s hope that each individual and family, with the help of our community, received faith, hope and love that has helped and changed their lives.
Lieutenants Mark and Beth Baggs
Wadsworth
