NEWPORT — An anonymous $500 cash donation, found stuffed into a Salvation Army Red Kettle, brought the group closer to its annual Christmas goal of $40,000 for 2025.

“We’re so close,” said a young officer with the Salvation Army’s Newport corps, a branch church of the nationwide organization whose Red Kettle Campaign began in 1891 in San Francisco with a cry of ‘Keep the pot boiling!’ “We praise the Lord it’s going so well.”

The church’s social programs hang in the balance of the annual Red Kettle Campaign, which helps pay for veteran’s programs, rent and utility assistance, a free-clothing store and a soup kitchen located at 140 Northeast 4th Street, behind the Arctic Circle restaurant.

According to the Salvation Army, every dollar that is donated stays in Lincoln County, serving over 2,500 people a month. Records show that 92 cents of every Kettle dollar goes to local Salvation Army programs. Among them is the annual Christmas toy party, where needy families feel the goodwill of shoppers who supported the Army’s toy drive at local stores.

There are two dozen volunteers and paid bell-ringers, their ranks often buoyed by community leaders — like a pair of Newport grade school principals who once volunteered for a late-morning shift at the Newport Fred Meyer store.

While the idea for Red Kettles has spread to Salvation Army charities in 128 nations, with innovations that include self-ringing kettles and credit card capabilities, the Newport chapter relies on real bell-ringers and local charity year ‘round.

For more information about the Salvation Army or its services — or to make an in-person donation — call, 541-265-6814 during regular office hours. Contributions to the local campaign can still be made through the Newport Virtual Red Kettle page.