Youth Champion of 2009

Jake Iery has the heart of a servant and he showed it  when he organized a community toy drive last Fall. Read more on our volunteer blog.

Our partners, our champions

Reaching out to our neighbors in need takes a team effort – from businesses, our volunteers, our staff, our community. On Wednesday night, we paused to take a few hours to honor some of our team, our champions, who have really gone above and beyond to make a difference in our city. All of our partners play a vital role in how we reach out to those in need, so it was difficult to choose just two to honor, but that was the plan. So, our deepest thanks and congratulations to Reach USA/ValPak and Two Men and a Truck for your work in 2009.

Reach USA/ValPak and Jim Brantley – We honored them for helping us get the word out. In our efforts to use our donor support to do the most good, The Salvation Army uses less than 1/2% of our budget to advertise and market our organization and services. Reach USA/ValPak works with us to get the most out of those dollars, offering reduced rate and sometimes even free space in their publications. And in 2009, Reach USA/ValPak was our WIBC Radiothon Phone Bank sponsor – donating their dollars and their employees’ time answering phones and helping out at Emmis. Jim offers his time and talent serving on our Advisory Board and Development Committee as well. Thanks, Reach USA/ValPak!

Two Men and a Truck and Drew Werling – We honored Two Men for all of the support their offer by transporting coat and toy donations during our annual Coats for Kids and WISHTree/Angel Tree collection drives. That’s no small task to pick up thousands of coats and toys from locations all over the city and get them efficiently to us to distribute to thousands of families in need. Two Men is also a title sponsor of our Homelessness Bites campaign for homeless and abused women and children. Drew believed in us when the campaign started and has supported us every step of the way. And we can’t forget the dozens of boxes they’ve donated to ship Operation Compassion care packages to our troops serving overseas. Thanks, Two Men!

And finally, a special thanks to our Advisory Board Chair, Diane Nichols (Perkins Nichols Media) for her tireless efforts to promote the brand and cause of The Salvation Army.

We are so appreciative that we could share the evening with friends from Kroger, WISH TV-8, the Northwest Indianapolis Kiwanis and Tuchman Cleaners as well. Thanks for taking the time to see how your support changes lives.

If you’d like to partner with The Salvation Army, give Kristen a call at 224-1019.

Mom Squad to ring for homeless kids

It’s in a mom’s nature to step in when there’s a need – especially if it involves kids. Once again this year, Indy Moms Like Me is joining us during the Christmas season to help raise some funds for our programs at the kettles – theirs is pink, by the way. And also, at our WIBC Radiothon during the Saturday Kids Day on December 12. The Moms are supporting our Homelessness Bites campaign to end homelessness for the 1,500 kids who spend their nights on the streets with their moms due to domestic violence or financial difficulties.

Indy Moms Like Me is a social networking group here in Indy where moms can come together and discuss all things “mom” – from parenting to support groups to volunteer opportunities and recipes.

Are you an Indy Mom? (If not, you can join here) If you are, join The Salvation Army group and encourage others to join us on Monument Circle on Saturday, December 12 to ring bells at the kettles and bring a toy down to donate for Angel Tree.

Bikers donate over 700 toys

This weekend, over 350 motorcyclists delivered toys to The Salvation Army as part of the 15th annual Circle City Toy Run. About 200 cycles shook the street as the giant convoy, which required a police escort, traveled from Zaines Too Bar & Grill to The Salvation Army’s Headquarters at 3100 North Meridian Street.

The bike enthusiasts brought with them over 700 toys which will be distributed to children in need during The Salvation Army’s Angel Tree distribution at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in a few weeks. Last year, over 13,000 toys were collected and distributed to families in need through Salvation Army toy programs.

The organizer of the Circle City Toy Run, Ron “Bumber” Herron says that he runs the annual event in honor of his Mother, Dorothy Herron, who was big supporter of The Salvation Army. Captain Marcos Ramirez expressed his gratitude for the generous gift as he spoke to the participants. “Your generosity is going to make a difference in hundreds of children’s lives. You’ve warmed my heart today,” said Captain Ramirez.

You can find out more about The Salvation Army’s Angel Tree and WISHtree programs by visiting IndyWISHTree.org.

Tree of Lights Ceremony Kicks off Season

WISH TV-8 anchorman, Eric Halvorson kicked off his fifth season as Chair at our Tree of Lights ceremony this morning. Community leaders and volunteers gathered to show support in raising this year’s campaign goal of $3 million – the largest goal ever set by The Salvation Army in Central Indiana. That’s an ambitious goal in a tough economic climate, but with requests for assistance soaring, we will need every last dollar to continue to provide food, shelter, utility and holiday assistance to our neighbors in need.

Walmart has generously agreed to once again serve as our Tree of Lights tree sponsor. Also joining us at this morning’s kick-off event was our 15th annual WIBC Radiothon team of Radiothon Chair and Pacers’ VP of Communications, Quinn Buckner and Terri Stacy and Joe Staysniak of the WIBC Morning Show. And special music was provided by the St. Richard’s singers and The Salvation Army Brass Ensemble. Our Divisional Commanders Majors Richard and Vicki Amick encouraged each of us to help our communities in need – if just one in ten people in Marion County could donate just $30 each, we’d collect that $3 million by Christmas! Now that’s not so unattainable.

We’d like to thank our corporate partners for their attendance and support this holiday season – Jerome Rauch – Walmart, John Elliott – Kroger and Jay Ricker – Ricker’s Oil and am/pm convenience stores and Two Men and A Truck. Thanks to Dunkin’ Donuts and GFS Marketplace for providing coffee and hot cocoa to all. Of course, we couldn’t have a tree lighting ceremony without our partners at Barth Electric. Thanks to the folks at WISH TV-8 for loaning Eric to us and for hosting and promoting the WISHTree toy collections throughout the season and at the December 13 Colts game at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Of course, this is just the beginning of the season for us. If you’d like to involve your business or organization, we’d love to have you join us! WIBC Radiothon hourly sponsorships and in-kind sponsorships are still available at WIBCRadiothon.org. Or, you can become a toy collection site and host a collection box – last year we were able to play Santa to over 900 families because of donations collected in offices and store fronts across Central Indiana! Ring a bell, host an on-line red kettle or just drop a few bucks in the kettle as you go by. With a $3 million goal, we can use all the help we can get!

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