Salvation Army Thanks Residents for their Holiday Help

To the editor:

The Salvation Army in Mystic Valley would like to thank local businesses, residents and organizations that donated to the Holiday drive and for the generous donations to assist us with our programming for 2013.

This year we received special attention from the Malden High Athletic department. When Catherine Murray read on Facebook that The Salvation Army in Malden did not have enough turkeys for families in need this past Thanksgiving, she did something about it. She worked to recruit Malden High Athletic teams, cheerleaders and coaching staff. In turn they raised money to not only buy turkeys, but to help with the Christmas toy effort. We also recognize those who adopted a family and made their Christmas very special.

There were also many people and businesses who also helped with our turkey drive. Anthony’s allowed us to store donated turkeys and Paul Murphy Insurance along with the Malden Police Benevolent Association gave monetary donations for turkeys. There was also a great group of young ladies with their mothers and teachers from the Ferryway School who helped us set up and distribute the Thanksgiving food baskets along with helping to set up the Christmas Toy shop. Speaking of the Toy shop, there were a great group of ladies from Zonta that took on the role of “shopper” helpers. They assisted people who had signed up for toys. They would walk around with them and help them choose toys for their children.  

We want to also acknowledge all of the businesses who allowed us to either place a counter top red kettle in their store or allowed us to stand outside ringing a bell collecting donations. The following stores participated in this year’s kettle drive: Stop & Shop; Walgreens; Kappys; Shaws; Mckinnons; Santoros; Cornucopia Foods and Lamson & Davis.  

We also want to thank Jen Cabral, Peg Crowe, David D'Arcangelo and Michael Guarino for helping out behind the scenes throughout the holiday season. And a big thank you to our special local celebrity bell ringer, Carol Ann Desiderio. There were so many more people who helped, but it would be impossible to list them all here in this little space.
 
The Salvation Army in Mystic Valley along with the communities it supports worked hard to give everyone a happy Thanksgiving, a Merry Christmas and to raise funds to continue its worthwhile programs throughout the year. And thanks to your generosity we will be able to assist more residents and continue with all of our programs and more.

Through these efforts, meals were provided for 244 families (around 900 individuals) and nearly 4,000 toys were distributed.

Thank you, Malden, Medford, Everett and Melrose.

Lieutenant James & Major Joy Labbe 

Administrators/Pastors of the Salvation Army

Mystic Valley Unit