Mayors Day Red Kettle Challenge Saturday

| December 14, 2018 12:00 AM

Saturday is the Salvation Army Mayors Day Red Kettle Challenge. With bells in hand, area mayors, former mayors, their families and friends will be doing their part to make the season a bit brighter for those in need. From 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. the Salvation Army Red Kettles will be manned at the Fred Meyer store by some of your local representatives.

This is the day that the Salvation Army waits for each year. On Saturday, the Fred Meyer Foundation will match donations dropped in the kettles up to $5,000. That can add up to a hefty chunk of change. Last year on that day, nearly $20,000 was raised by the two kettles at Fred Meyer, including the match.

Christy Markham, marketing and development director for the Kroc Center, said “We are still down a bit from last year, and we need to raise more than we did last year. When we look at the community outreach activities that we run throughout the year they just cost a little bit more and so we had to raise our goal. But it is this day that kind of makes or breaks our goal each year if people come out or not.”

This year’s Kettle goal is $261,000, which will help support all the programs offered throughout the year by Salvation Army in Kootenai County.

Markham explained that Mayors Day initially was a friendly fundraising competition between Spokane and Coeur d’Alene, back in 2012.

“And quite frankly, we beat them so bad that they didn’t want to play anymore,” Markham said jokingly.

The Red Kettle Campaign kicks off every year the Friday before Thanksgiving and goes until Christmas Eve. Here in Kootenai County, 23 kettles a day can be found collecting spare change or sizeable donations, but those dollars dropped on Saturday at Fred Meyer will go just a little bit further.

“I would just encourage people that if you’ve been saving your donation or if you’ve been wondering about mailing it in or not — just bring it to Fred Meyer that day. It absolutely stays local and it makes it so we get the matching gift from Fred Meyer,” Markham said.