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For local news regarding The Salvation Army in Olympia you can also see our weekly posts at saolympia.blogspot.com. This "blog" e-newsletter will contain the most up-to-date current happenings of our Corps. News impacting the larger Salvation Army will continue to be posted here.
May 2008 - THE Salvation Army in Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) is responding to the devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis, which is thought to have killed more than 20,000 people. Communications to Myanmar have been severely affected but news has been received that local Salvationists are helping victims in the Yangon area.
A news release on The Salvation Army's Response can be found here.
Informatin on donating to the relief effort can be found here.
Western Territorial Headquarters has announced changes of appointment for some leadership positions within the terriorty. These changes include Divisional Commanders and Territorial Cabinet level appointments. Included in the changes was the appointment of Lt. Colonels Doug and Diane O'Brien to be the Divisional Commanders of the Northwest Division. The O'Briens come from the same position in the Sierra Del Mar Division, which covers the great San Diego area in California. You can see the whole list here. Lt. Colonels O'Brien succeed Lt. Colonels Harold and JoAnn Brodin who will retire from active service.
February 12, 2008 - After being delayed a few weeks because of weather, The Salvation Army was able to hold its Annual Volunteer Appreciation Dinner. The event honors those who have given the time to help others. Since the highest number of volunteers get involved during the Christmas season, the event natural focuses much attention to those volunteers.
Recognitions for the night were given to the Toy Run Coalition, the Women's Auxiliary, and many other groups and individuals. The highlight of each year's event is the announcement of the Lovel Briere Volunteer of the Year Award, named after the long time community volunteer. This year's recipient was Mr. Greg Matzen (see photo). Greg volunteers countless hours each year in the Community Kitchen as well as at Christmas time, when he can be found counting money, supervising kettle workers and ringing the bell in Tumwater.
Special guests for the evening were Majors Barry and Arlene Dooley, from The Salvation Army's Divisional Headquarters in Seattle.
More photos of the event can be found here.
January 2, 2008 - The Salvation Army's Christmas activities concluded December 24th with the final hours of the Red Kettle Campaign. In total, kettles raised $177,000 for the season, which was up about $10,000 from the previous year. When you account for expenses (including payroll) the net increase over last year was about $4,500. These funds were just a part of the overall Christmas effort.
More than 850 families were assisted with toys and food, thanks to the generosity of many people in the community. Approximately 270 families were adopted by local business, organizations, government groups and individuals. For adoptions, the sponsor provides food and a minimum of 3 gifts per child in the family, though most of the sponsors provide much more including gifts for parents. The remaining families go through the Toy 'n Joy shop where they select 3 gifts for each child and are given extra games, balls, stocking stuffers, a hefty food box and a gift card for fresh food.
The youth affiliated with The Salvation Army in Olympia concluded their long list of summer activities with their Youth Extravaganza and a trip to Wild Waves.
Made possible with funding from The Salvation Army's Women's Auxiliary, activities during the summer included trips to Northwest Trek, Millersylvania, Woodland Park Zoo and Wild Waves. Also, during the summer we had the Halleluja Road show do a mini-day camp program and the summer ended with our Youth Extravaganza where we debuted our new puppet ministry.
Major Shari Fowler and our Youth Director, Bill Simon, did a great job of keeping the kids engaged over the summer and they now get down to business of regular weekly programs for kids. A couple of changes for new year are happening. First, youth night has been moved to Wednesday nights to make better use of our volunteers. Also we've added a creative arts section for teenagers on that night which will be led by Major Chuck Fowler. "We're excited about our opportunities to reach out to kids with a positive message in a supportive and safe atmosphere", said Major Fowler.
The Salvation Army has strict policies for working with children as laid out in its Safe From Harm policies. All staff and volunteers who work with kids are trained in child abuse recognition and prevention and have their background checked once per year.
Latest News - this link will open in a new window at our territorial site that has news about The Salvation Army in the West and around the world.
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