Posts Tagged ‘Children’

More than 12,000 students in need across the country did their school supplies shopping today as a part of Target and The Salvation Army’s Back-to-School Spree!

Each participating child, selected by The Salvation Army, was awarded an $80 Target GiftCard to purchase much-needed back-to-school supplies, and they were paired with a volunteer chaperone to help them pick out their new items.  Target has awarded all 40 of The Salvation Army divisions nationwide a total of $960,000 worth of Target GiftCards, an incredible donation that without which this event would not be possible.

We here at The Salvation Army National Headquarters had the great pleasure of attending the Back-to-School Spree that took place at the Target in Falls Church, VA this morning. It was a GREAT time!

For more pictures from today’s Back-to-School Spree, visit The Salvation Army’s National Flickr page HERE.

The aisles of fresh notebooks, colorful markers, and shiny backpacks generated pure excitement in the faces of the kids as they perused the shelves with their Salvation Army volunteer chaperones. 30 local area children ranging from grade levels K-12 participated at this location. For many of them it was the first time they’ve ever bought brand new school supplies, but this year they’ll be able to start the upcoming academic year prepared and confident.

With a full shopping cart, 5^th grader Quentin confirmed his readiness, especially for his favorite class math. He made sure to purchase a ruler, pencils, and plenty of erasers.  “It was good. I feel grateful. I don’t have to go back and get more because I got all of it,” he told me.

7^th grader Ty-anna’s grin gave away her excitement. Armed with new supplies Ty-anna  said, “I won’t be behind at school. This has helped me a lot. It makes me really happy.”

A smiley 3^rd grader named We’am recognized that while she had fun shopping, she knew it was also helping out her mom who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford new school supplies for We’am and her siblings.

Salvation Army Officer Captain Vance Murphy said, “It was neat watching the kids’ faces light up and listen to them talk about what they were going to buy. I don’t know who gets more out of this – the kids or volunteers.”

Major Steve Morris from The Salvation Army’s National Area Command believes the benefits are shared evenly. “I think every volunteer here has said they’ve made a new friend. It’s more than just, ‘let’s go do this job.’ There’s a relationship built. That’s the Army’s touch. It’s equally beneficial.”

His idea seemed to be proven by a particular Salvation Army volunteer and 8^th grade shopper who both share the name Toni. As they checked out with the Target cashier, it was hard to tell who was more excited about the day’s shopping.  8^th grader Toni said she couldn’t believe the generosity shown by Target and The Salvation Army, and especially her volunteer chaperone whom she had just met less than a few hours earlier. “I’m so happy! I’m so thankful!” she bubbled. Her chaperone added, “I’m in ecstasy with her joy. Her expression was worth every moment!” The two gave each other an emotional hug before heading outside with their bags.

Thanks to Target’s generous partnership, today’s Back-to-School Spree was a huge success. Thousands of needy kids across the country are now prepared and excited to start their school year, while volunteers left equally inspired. Thank you to everyone who participated today, especially Target, who has shown a strong commitment to supporting children and education.

For more pictures from today’s Back-to-School Spree, visit The Salvation Army’s Flickr page here.

P.S. We heard that at a Back-to-School Spree in Altoona, Pennsylvania some lucky kids got to shop with some local heroes! Players from the Altoona Curve, the area’s minor league baseball team, came out to volunteer as chaperones. See photos of pitcher Justin Wilson and pitcher Dustin Mollekin on our Flickr site here.

Teonnia, Shon, Gladys, Annette, Andrew, Diamond, Jynxy and about a dozen other children traveled from Charlotte, NC to our nation’s capital this July for a summervacation. Amid the crowds of Washington, DC tourists the group of 18 kids blended in among the masses of other visitors, probably looking like the many school groups that make annual summer treks to the city. However, the story behind the young travelers’ trip was certainly unique.

The kids are residents of The Salvation Army Center of Hope in Charlotte, NC, a homeless shelter for women and children that currently houses more than 300 people. Normally these kids would not have the opportunity to take a vacation as their parents strive just to find housing and provide food for their families, but the generosity of an anonymous donor made it possible for the children to escape from life’s challenges for a short while and just have fun being kids.

The children enjoyed simple pleasures, like staying in a hotel and eating out at restaurants, as well as experienced the unique history and character of Washington, DC. They toured the national monuments, viewed exhibits at some of DC’s most popular museums and even took a boat ride (a first for at least one child) down the Potomac. The group even met with their U.S. Representatives for a personal and candid discussion!

The kids visited The Salvation Army's Archives Department which maintains historical documents and media.

To top off their adventure, the kids visited The Salvation Army National Headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia, located just a few minutes from Washington, DC. Here they toured the building and spent time with our National Commander Commissioner Israel L. Gaither! They also visited our archives department that contains all sorts of historical records, photos, books and research pertaining to The Salvation Army’s rich 145 year history. All in all, the group had a great time and learned a great deal about our organization.

While thumbing through archived files, some of the kids were eager to do their own research on The Salvation Army!

The Charlotte Observer ran a story about the trip with several quotes from the kids in an article called, “Away from the shelter to a Washington vacation,” which you can read by clicking here.

The contributions of the kind anonymous donor made it possible for The Salvation Army to provide these kids not only with shelter and food they receive at home in Charlotte, but also encouragement, inspiration, and a unique educational opportunity through this  invaluable experience.  In fact, all donations, regardless of size or amount, from generous Salvation Army supporters across the country help us serve those in need every day, and this story is just one of countless others in which lives have been affected for the better. For more information about contributing monetary support or gifts-in-kind to The Salvation Army, visit our website at www.salvationarmyusa.org and www.satruck.org.

You can also learn about the many services offered by The Salvation Army of Charlotte at their website www.salvationarmycharlotte.org/.

International track star Lolo Jones joined Citadel Corps day campers in a game of dodgeball when she paid a surprise visit yesterday. (Photo by Arvid Huisman)

International track star Lolo Jones paid a surprise visit to The Salvation Army’s Citadel Community Center (Corps) and Summer Day Camp in Des Moines, Iowa yesterday. Jones and an NBC television crew visited the center to help tell the story of how her family lived at The Salvation Army center during a time of homelessness when she was a child. Lolo was active in the Corps’ children’s ministries while she was growing up.

After playing an intense  game of dodgeball with the day camp children, Lolo encouraged them to reach for their goals. All the kids, and Lolo, had a blast!

The NBC crew captured video of Lolo Jones and the day campers in preparation for coverage of Lolo prior to the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. The footage is expected to be broadcast in August 2012, but the film crew director said some of the video may be shown on NBC’s Today Show sooner.

Jones, an Olympic hurdler from Des Moines, is a two-time world indoor champion. She won her second outdoor national title in the 100-meter hurdles at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Des Moines on June 26 with a time of 12.69 seconds.

For more information about The Salvation Army’s work in Des Moines, visit their website at www.salvationarmy-desmoines.org.

Information provided by The Salvation Army’s Western Division.

There is something cheerful and nostalgic about seeing roadside lemonade stands run by eager, entrepreneurial children. Nothing beats following the crayon-etched signs and dropping a few quarters into a tackle box-turned-cash register, then being greeted by a kid beaming with accomplishment as they hold up a refreshing homemade beverage in return.

That’s why we’re excited about a creative benefit called “LemonAiD Days” to support homeless children and their parents, an effort organized by The Salvation Army in Central Kentucky. Beginning June 1^st, individuals and groups in this area can register their lemonade stand online or at their local Salvation Army. Participants will receive a LemonAiD kit in the mail that includes official badges, posters, and return envelopes for proceeds.

This fundraiser is a great way for kids to practice creativity, learn about economics, and be empowered to make a difference in their community. Proceeds will benefit The Salvation Army’s  Comprehensive Emergency Shelter for families in Central Kentucky, with funds supporting the operational expenses associated with housing homeless children, such as providing food, lodging, diapers, clothing, and child-care.

For more information or to register online, visit www.lemonAiDdays.org. To learn more about The Salvation Army in Central Kentucky, visit www.salvationarmylex.org.

The Salvation Army is joining with Enough is Enough (EIE), the nationally leading organization in making the internet safer for children and families, TODAY for the official national launch of Internet Safety 101. The Program is a comprehensive resource providing a website, DVD teaching series, and workbook to empower and inform adults, helping them protect kids from web-based threats such as online sexual predators, pornography, and cyber-bullying.

The event is streaming LIVE at 11am on Ustream and is being broadcast from The Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC. For more information, visit The Salvation Army’s website to read about our Program partnership or visit  www.internetsafety101.org.

Streaming live video by Ustream

The internet has revolutionized the way we work, play and communicate, exponentially increasing accessibility to knowledge and tools of almost anything that can be imagined. In addition to its many advantages,  this nearly limitless exposure provided by the web also presents unique risks and threats to users, especially children. Online they have free and easy access to solicited and unsolicited pornography, as well as increased opportunities to engage in risky behavior.  They are also susceptible to sexual predators and cyberbullies. Whether it be on their computers, cell phones, or gaming systems, the internet leaves youth vulnerable to threats never imagined before recent years. In addition, many adults lag in technological savvy, leaving kids to fend for themselves on this electronic playground.

To address this need,  The Salvation Army is partnering with Enough is Enough (EIE),  the nationally leading organization in making the internet safer for children and families, to better prepare adults to know how to fight on their kids’ behalf against this real and ever-present corruption.

On Wednesday, February 17 at The Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC, we are officially launching the new Internet Safety 101 Program, which will serve to empower parents, educators, and other adults through an array of educational materials available through the website www.internetsafety101.org, a comprehensive DVD teaching series, and a workbook. The materials address serious but relevant issues such as pornography, sexual predators, online gaming, cyberbullying, social networking, and other web-based threats. The Program will be officially announced at a press event at The Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC, attended by EIE President Donna Rice Hughes, The Salvation Army’s National President of Women’s Ministries Commissioner Eva Gaither, who serves on EIE’s Board of Directors, and Major Betty Israel, The Salvation Army’s National Social Services Secretary.

Indeed, EIE and The Salvation Army understand there is an urgent and increasing need to equip adults and guard children from the threats that lurk within the internet community. According to EIE:

• Almost 93% of children ages 12-17 are online, leaving a hugely significant majority of the young population vulnerable.
• There are more than 644,865 registered sex offenders in the United States, more than 100,000 of whom have been “lost in the system.”
• Grossing $13 billion annually, the internet has become the dominant source for disseminating hard-core pornography.
• Online child pornography is a $3 billion annual industry and continues to grow.

Surprised by some of this information? It may be a good idea to check your Internet Safety IQ through this short quiz. More startling statistics regarding the internet and web-based threats, along with information regarding EIE’s preventative mission, can be found at their original website www.Enough.org.

As a part of its mission statement to indiscriminately meet human need in the name of Christ, The Salvation Army is committed to protecting the bodies, hearts, and minds of children and fighting the evils that are pornography and sexual exploitation, which distort God’s perfect design and erode our society. The Salvation Army’s partnership with EIE in supporting the Internet Safety 101 Program and Commissioner Eva Gaither’s ongoing participation in oversight of EIE’s plans and activities help further this critical goal.

Lisa Thompson is the National Liaison for the Abolition of Sexual Trafficking at National Headquarters.

Recently Lisa and her work with the Army to end sex trafficking was featured in “Christian Single” magazine.

Download the entire article and learn more about how you can help abolish sexual trafficking.

You can read more about The Salvation Army’s position on sexual trafficking on the national website and find out about events to spread awareness and support of victims on the Combating Human Trafficking webpage.

Captain Jolinda Shelbourn, Women's Ministries Director, left, talks with member of Women's Ministries Priscilla Boothe, right, of Bloomington, while playing bingo during The Salvation Army Women's Ministry in Bloomington Sunday late afternoon, September 13, 2009.(THE PANTAGRAPH/B MOSHER)

Being able to serve others efficiently means knowing the unique needs of your audience.

While The Salvation Army prides itself on its ability to help meet the basic needs of all men, women and children, it also knows that sometimes, special attention is a need all of its own.

The Salvation Army in Bloomington, Illinois, sought to meet that need for 25 girls and women as it hosted a Women’s Day event Sunday, September 13th.

Pantagraph.com covered the all-female party that offered everything from bingo to health screenings and certificates for free haircuts at the local cosmetology college.

“We’re hoping to touch the community,” said Capt. Jolinda Shelbourn, director of women’s ministries for the Salvation Army in McLean County.

“Women are working, teaching, raising their kids, and they need some time away, and we provide that. Sometimes, they just want something clean, free and fun that they can do with their families. We are trying to uphold women in society and let them know that there is a lot of good things they can do together or without anyone else.”

The Army intends to hold similar events once or twice per year.

So much of what The Salvation Army is known for is its timely and dedicated disaster response initiatives.  From mud slides and tsunamis to earthquakes and tornadoes, the Army is always there to provide a warm meal, an attentive ear and a firm shoulder.

Sometimes though, the stories of what the Army does to preempt and prevent heartache, despair and hopelessness, get lost.

The Chicago Tribune ran a story yesterday about a group of siblings from one of its roughest neighborhoods that are now “blossoming” in one of the Army’s music programs.

Destiny Jones, center, turns in an art project at the Salvation Army center on 69th Street in Chicago (Credit: Terrence Antonio James, Chicago Tribune)

The siblings were initially featured in a Tribune story that detailed their life in one of Chicago’s most dangerous neighborhoods.

The three-girls-and-one-boy sibling group was offered scholarships to The Salvation Army’s Adele and Robert Stern Red Shield Center where they participate in the camp and after-school programs.

Julian Champion, who oversees the center, said he was moved after reading the Tribune story about Dewine, 10-year-old Destiny, 7-year-old Dynasty, and 7-year-old Courtney Mims.   The story did not list the family’s address, but it did include a photo of the children playing in their front yard. So the day Champion read the story, he gave the picture to his program director and sent him on a mission to find them. He wanted the children immediately enrolled in the center’s programs.

“This is why we exist,” he said. “Our children are just as gifted and talented as kids anywhere. We want to provide opportunities for kids here that they don’t normally get.” They get get help with their homework, learn about art and drama, have physical activities and take music lessons.

How the children came to be a part of the program is truly a testament to The Salvation Army’s commitment to meeting human needs right where people are.  Champion’s desire to reroute these youths from a life of drugs and violence is the same passion with which the hundreds of Salvation Army camps, before- and after-school programs, and children’s groups are established and run.

“One of the things that most concerns us is children missing opportunities to do things,” said Brad Baker, the center’s program director. “Unless they have opportunities, we don’t know who we’ll have. We could have the next great clarinet player, the next Benny Goodman.

“These kids around here love to play basketball,” Baker said. “But in college there are only about eight basketball scholarships. There’s always a seat in the band for musicians.”

So maybe this work isn’t so different from an emergency disaster response: The Salvation Army stepped in in the lives of these children just in time, responding to an urgent, emergency call from their community.  They needed hope, they wanted to see another way out of the lives that they knew, and just like always, The Salvation Army was there.

The New Jersey Newsroom is running a four-part series on the New Jersey Salvation Army.

The third installment talks about Camp Tecumseh, a sprawling, 400-acre facility in Hunterdon County, New Jersey.

Entitled, “Camp Tecumseh Brings Salvation to New Jersey Kids,” the article follows the experience of a 19-year-old Newark man who believes the camp saved his life.

“I had just completed my first year of high school, and 29 of my classmates were killed that summer, murdered,” Darell Houseton said. “Most of it was gang-related. But some people were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, innocent bystanders. Twenty-nine is a lot. And I like to think that since I was at camp, I wasn’t No. 30, ‘cause some of these people were my friends.”

In addition to its youth camp, Tecumseh also opens its doors to veterans and seniors throughout the year for camp experiences catered to their needs.

Indeed, Camp Tecumseh is a respite that the Army endeavors to share with as many as possible.

We all need a break from time-to-time.  Stress at work, the neverending responsibilities of home, and all of the stuff in the middle can wear anyone down.  The monotony of routines.  The auto-pilot we often find ourselves working and living in.  Every now and then we all feel the need for a break.

Now what if – for whatever reason – there was no break to be had from your worries?  No vacation days.  No partner to pick up the slack.  No support system to help get you through rough times.  No moment to just slow down, take a minute and breathe.  Then what?

For so many – especially those who are able to enjoy Camp Tecumseh and the hundreds of similar Salvation Army camps across the country – there is no respite from their troubles.

The homeless, the disadvantaged, the neglected.

Through our youth camps, Kroc and recreation centers, veterans and senior programs, and Community Cares programs, The Salvation Army offers thousands of opportunities to escape, if only for a moment.  The services that we offer echo our belief that only once people have inner peace – no worries for food, shelter or immediate needs- can that peace be reflected in their lives.

For those very reasons the work that the Army does is so much more than saving souls.  Sometimes people just need to be saved from one nightmarish week, one day.  So while eternal salvation is our ultimate goal, salvation from isolation, despair, frustration and being overwhelmed are equally as important.