The Bradford Salvation Army has until noon today to meet the
Christmas dinner needs of the area’s less fortunate, and still
needs hundreds of food items to fill the bill.
Capt. Deborah Weigner said Tuesday afternoon the Salvation Army
still needs a number of food items to complete its 300 holiday food
packages to be distributed at the YWCA Tuesday.
Weigner still needs 171 containers of spaghetti sauce, 219 cans
of cranberry sauce, 146 containers of apple sauce, 136 packages of
Jell-O or pudding, 100 boxes of dry cereal, 100 jars of jelly, 200
containers of stuffing and 75 boxes of saltine crackers.
The need for food is just one concern for the Salvation
Army.
The Salvation Army’s other leader and Weigner’s husband, Capt.
Henry Weigner, sustained major head injuries in a head-on collision
with a logging truck Thursday on Route 66 in Wetmore Township.
He was taken to Kane Community Hospital from the scene of the
accident, and then to Hamot Medical Center in Erie, where he was
initially listed in serious condition.
“He’s doing better each and every day,” Deborah Weigner said of
her husband. “He’s still weak, but people should see him in
Bradford soon … he has a lot of healing to do,” she said, adding
that although he should be home for Christmas, it will be some time
before he can return to work.
In the meantime, there’s much work to be done.
The Salvation Army is also still accepting financial donations
for the 300 turkeys or hams that must still be purchased today, she
said. They can also take the meat itself, Weigner said, if a
business, club or organization has money to give to charity and
wants to purchase the turkeys and/or hams. They have plenty of
freezer space.
Weigner said she wants to remind those groups that this type of
donations is tax deductible, and the Salvation Army would be happy
to provide the proper documentation for that.
Any food items not donated by noon today will have to be
purchased off store shelves using kettle campaign funds, Weigner
said.
“Donations have been coming in,” she said, “Everyone has been
very generous.” She said those still looking to donate food items
can drop them off the YWCA. She also thanked those who have been
generous with their finances, time and energy.
Weigner and the Salvation Army are facing an extraordinarily
challenging Christmas season this year. In years passed, the
Salvation Army and the ELF (Era’s Less Fortunate) Fund worked
cooperatively collecting food for Christmas distribution. This
year, however, the two entities took on separate duties, and the
Salvation Army now orchestrates collections for the 300 Christmas
dinners itself.
The Salvation Army still needs volunteers to do bell-ringing at
the collection kettles and for other corps projects, too.
