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The
Christmas Kettles
An American Friend
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Visitors to our American Continent at Christmas time often note the Christmas Kettle which is now ubiquitous across the land. We are always asked when and why they started so here is a potted history.
In the Fall of 1891 Captain Joseph MeFee decided to raise money to pay for a free Christmas dinner for San Francisco's poor. He remembered seeing in Liverpool (England) people putting donations into a large pot for a similar purpose. Having gained the appropriate permission, he placed such a pot at a ferry landing, at the base of Market Street. So successful was he that other officers took up the idea and by the turn of the century, dozens of Corps along the East Coast had a pot.
The kettle became a more common sight in the early years of this century and a hundred years after McFee's idea, over 15,000 kettles collect huge sums. Today, instead of huge sit~down dinners such as the Army once arranged, the poor are given dinners at local Salvation Army
centres. Others are given grocery vouchers to enable them to shop for a Christmas dinner.
The Salvation Army is proud in helping over 5,000,000 people at Christmas with a great proportion of the money coming from the Kettles. |
