Mall Victory Helps Salvation Army Set Record for Contributions

The San Fernando Valley Corps of the Salvation Army has set a record for Christmas season kettle collections, with bell ringers bringing in more than $82,000 despite earlier problems with a Northridge mall, corps officials announced Wednesday.

“It’s been a banner year for us,” Capt. John Purdell said. “And that’s because we are positioned where we are supposed to be and where the public wants us--at the malls.”

Last year, the Valley corps’ kettles brought in $52,000 from Thanksgiving to Christmas. The Valley chapter’s previous record was set in 1982, when just under $82,000 was collected.

Valley donations to the Salvation Army are exceeding those to corps chapters in Glendale, Long Beach, Pasadena and Hollywood. The Santa Ana chapter has the second highest collection with $52,000.

But corps officials noted that those chapters have only half as many kettles--from 15 to 17--as the Valley corps.

More Donations Expected

Purdell said he expects his bell-ringers to collect several thousand more dollars at Valley malls before the Christmas season is over.

The successful Valley drive came after Purdell publicly defied orders to leave the Northridge Fashion Square, which bans solicitors, the day after Thanksgiving.

Purdell and a trombone player were seeking donations outside a Broadway store at the mall when the mall manager placed them under citizens arrest for trespassing.

Police released the two, and Purdell returned to the mall the next day. After an hour of negotiations, mall officials agreed to classify his blue-uniformed bell-ringers and musicians as “entertainers,” thus permitting the kettles.

Kettles Set Up

After winning that fight, Purdell set up kettles at 33 other locations without incident.

Officials from corps chapters in Los Angeles and Orange counties said they decided not to force their kettles on malls where they were not wanted.

The publicity surrounding Purdell’s arrest apparently helped generate mail donations for the Salvation Army, corps officials said.

Throughout Los Angeles County, mail donations are down 14%. But in the Valley, contributions are “only modestly behind”--down 3% from 1987, said Russell Prince, business administrator at the Salvation Army’s Los Angeles headquarters.

Valley residents have mailed in $67,000 so far this year, compared to $69,000 by the same time last year, Prince said. “There’s no question that the increased exposure with the Valley kettles has helped us,” he said.

The money will allow the Valley corps to sponsor a Christmas breakfast with Santa Claus for “all the children he missed,” Purdell said. It will enable the corps to continue providing emergency food and shelter assistance for the homeless and poor.

Meanwhile, nearly 200 homeless people, including 44 children, sought relief from cold winter storms either in the California National Guard Armory in Van Nuys or in motels through a Los Angeles city emergency shelter program, officials said.

The program, which goes into effect when temperatures dip below 40 degrees or when sub-50 degree readings are predicted along with a 50% chance of rain, will operate tonight, said George Pallas, a city homeless service coordinator.

Valley homeless can obtain van rides to the armory at three locations from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Vans stop at Van Nuys City Hall branch, 14410 Sylvan St.; El Centro De Amistad, 7024 Deering Ave., Canoga Park, and the Valley Rescue Mission, 11741 Glenoaks Blvd., Pacoima.

The armory is at 17330 Victory Blvd., Van Nuys.

Information regarding other emergency shelters may be obtained by calling 1-800-548-6047.