Salvation Army sums up its missions as “doing the most good.” Holiday shoppers know that Christmas time really is coming, when they see the Salvation Army’s red kettles and hear those ringing silver bells, which invite people to share their own good fortune with less fortunate neighbors.
Salvation Army sums up its missions as “doing the most good.” Holiday shoppers know that Christmas time really is coming, when they see the Salvation Army’s red kettles and hear those ringing silver bells, which invite people to share their own good fortune with less fortunate neighbors.
Serving East County residents in 1979, El Cajon Corps of the Salvation Army began through the mission group’s dual roles of religious outreach in tandem with effective practical assistance programs, which are especially geared toward quick response during times of community and personal crisis. A recent holiday El Cajon Corps program now asks individuals and organizations in East County to follow that lead, by adopting a family in the community that would otherwise be unable to celebrate a merry Christmas. The Adopt a Family program is meant for the neediest families, who are in crisis situations that began during 2014.
Taneya Garrett has been a ministry assistant with the Salvation Army’s El Cajon Corps since August. This is her first time organizing the Adopt a Family program. Last year, the program paired 35 families with sponsors. Garrett’s goal this year is ambitious. She hopes to link 100 needy East County families with generous individual and organizational sponsors that will adopt each family for Christmas. Garrett contrasts this “personal-touch” program with other available holiday assistance.
“This is different, because Adopt a Family asks for more care and love for the family members who are adopted,” she said.
Esperanza Stevens heads a family that was adopted last year. Within a span of five days in August 2013, her husband died of liver cancer, her daughter was arrested, leaving her two young sons behind in Stevens’ care. Widowed and without other supportive resources, Stevens realized that she had to parent her grandsons, Isaac, 8, and Luis, 13. Although she has had a stable life in El Cajon and work as a machine operator at Delstar Technologies for 11 years, her income was insufficient to provide for all the needs of her newly acquired boys.
Stevens began attending the Salvation Army’s worship and fellowship events for spiritual, emotional and practical aid as her husband was dying. She brought her grandsons along to church services when they started living with her. According to Garrett, the Salvation Army El Cajon Corps ministers recognized the Stevens family’s great need for assistance.
“We saw a brand new family we had really needed help,” she said.
Adopt a Family program paired Stevens and her new family with a woman who sponsored their Christmas.
“We received everything we needed from our sponsor lady—food, clothes, pillows, blankets,” she said.
The sponsor gave the family a heater because the house was cold. Each of the boys received a backpack for school and a $50 certificate to shop at Target, which they used for personal hygiene and bath items. The sponsor gave Stevens a gift of pajamas and certificates for $50 at Target and $20 at Bath & Body Works. The sponsor provided their holiday meals for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
“We got turkey, ham, everything to go along,” Stevens said. “It is very hard when you have no food. I feel very, very blessed from the Salvation Army.”
Garrett says that participants in Salvation Army assistance at this time of year focus on help with meeting specific needs for their kids. Rarely does anyone ask for extravagant gifts, she explains, no electronics, no designer clothes, and only real necessities.
Families under consideration for participation in the Adopt a Family program will be identified through the Salvation Army’s social services department and from intake sign-ups for the larger toy and food assistance program. Twenty-eight sponsors were lined up by mid-November for the Adopt a Family program, and four families had been confirmed for acceptance to be sponsored.
For 36 years, the Salvation Army has conducted an East County Toy and Food Drive. The organization expects to serve around 1,500 families in this Christmas program.
“We cannot do this alone,” said Captain Terry Masango, pastor, El Cajon Corps. “We need the community to support us.”
A total of 1,200 to 1,300 families will be interviewed for receiving Christmas toys and holiday food. Garrett will interview the neediest among this pool of low-income families, to verify their critical need for the deeper “care and love” from the personal intervention of an Adopt a Family sponsor for Christmas.
The Kettle Kick-Off Party for the larger fundraising effort was held on Nov. 12, at Hooleys Irish Pub & Grill in Grossmont Center, in conjunction with the first big intake sign-up for help through the food and toy drive. Four more sign-up events will be held as the holidays near.
Masango asks East County residents, “Please be generous. All the money donated in East County stays here in East County. We are here to serve East County, and we want people here to know they may be down but they are not out. We usually don’t have enough money.” But he said the organization stretches its dollars to be a reliable “conduit of grace.”
The group’s first-ever Thanksgiving Drive-Through Food Drive will be held on Nov. 25, from 6 a.m. until noon. For this event, the Salvation Army asks donors to bring turkeys and accompanying “fix-in’s” for drop off at the El Cajon Corps center. Masango says the times were chosen to ease the donation process.
“People on the way to work can drive in and not have to even get out of their cars.” He said. “Please come by the Salvation Army. This is going to be a fun, fun day for us.”
Masango said that the Salvation Army is one of “the most trusted in the U.S.,” and that of every dollar donated $0.87 is paid out for those served. The local ministry center, which serves or assists an average of 1,300 families per month, can be visited at 1011 E. Main Street in El Cajon. More information is also available at www.salvationarmyelcajon.org. The Salvation Army invites East County residents to upcoming holiday events. The third annual Thanksgiving Concert will begin on Nov. 23, at 6 p.m.
“This is a wonderful celebration,” said Masango. Christmas Sunday worship is at 10:45 a.m. on December 21, and Christmas Eve services are at 5 p.m. on December 24.
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