Salvation Army unit operates from home
Standing in her basement, Audrey Savage separates toys with Joanna Bontrager. There are stuffed animals, buildings blocks, baby dolls and play trucks. All of the toys are tagged with a small piece of paper. Some are marked for girls, others are marked for boys: They all have an age range on them.
“It gives me goose bumps,” said Savage, a volunteer for the Hopwood-Markleysburg Salvation Army Unit. She leans over a table piled with toys. “The toy drive has been fantastic, as you can see.’
The Hopwood-Markleysburg Salvation Army Unit is run entirely by volunteers.
“We are a very small unit,” Bontrager said. “We have no church, no building, no soup kitchen, no board of directors, no auxiliary and no paid employees. A lot of people don’t even know we exist.”
Everything is done in Savage’s basement. People who need help call her at home. Others will stop by her house.
Seventy-five pounds of potatoes are stacked in the corner, out of the way. Savage said the potatoes will be given out Tuesday when they have a food bank at Mountain Fellowship Center in Markleysburg.
Savage said their Salvation Army unit will provide toys for 176 kids this Christmas. She said they also gave out clothing vouchers for 85 children and 10 adults.
According to Savage, the Hopwood-Markleysburg unit receives $1,000 a year from the Salvation Army. Money raised from the Herald-Standard’s Give-A-Christmas program, featuring Sparkle, helps the unit. The money is collected from local residents by the Herald-Standard and turned over to the Salvation Army which distributes it to local units like Hopwood-Markleysburg.
However, that money does not go very far, said Bontrager.
“There have been times when we could not help someone who needed it because we didn’t have the money,” Bontrager said. “We rely on the money we receive from Sparkle every year.”
However, Savage and Bontrager said they’re always willing to do what they can.
“One year, several years ago, somebody called on Christmas Eve around 3 p.m. and told us that they knew a couple who had eight children. The person told us that the couple was too proud to ask for help, but that the kids weren’t going to have anything for Christmas,” Bontrager said. “Somehow we were able to put a Christmas together for them. We were able to load up a car with stuff. Sometimes, you take things out from under your own tree.”
In addition to the food bank that is held every month, Savage said they help people in need pay utility bills. They also help fire and flood victims when necessary.
“There are so many people in the community who need help, and we try to help as many of them as we can,” Savage said. “Sparkle is so important to us; it’s a big blessing.”
Donations can be made to Give-A-Christmas, P.O. Box 1147, Uniontown 15401 or brought to the desks of the Herald-Standard offices in Connellsville, Brownsville and Uniontown weekdays during business hours. Also, Sparkle cans have been placed in 250 store locations in the Herald-Standard distribution area. For more information, call 724-439-7500.