La Crosse, WI (WXOW) - The Salvation Army's Red Kettle campaign numbers are in, and although they fell short of their goal, they had a record number of volunteers.
The total raised during the holiday bellringing was $575,000, or $57,000 under their $632,000 goal.
Although they didn't make their goal, Red Kettle donations-the money received from the kettles, were up 22 percent from last year. Large donations they usually receive were not as prevalent.
This was the first year that they had a match day, a day where local businesses match the contributions for a specific kettle. They said it was a success and plan to do it again next year.
"It really supports everything that we do throughout the year. First of all, it paid for everything we do at Christmas time. You know, a lot of people that got help this year at Christmas time, over 4,000, and then all the sheltering we do, the kid's program, the feeding program, all of that gets paid for by this," said Major Paul Moore.
They increased their goal $32,000 this year in hopes of funding another employee to serve the needs of the community. They will still explore other options to do this.
