Salvation Army Stages Emergency Fund Drive
Salvation Army soldier Mamie Smith drew puzzling looks as she sat beside her red kettle, ringing a bell and soliciting donations. “My God, Christmas is coming and I haven’t even started,” a passerby remarked at her station outside the Pomona post office.
In fact, Santa wasn’t coming in July--the Salvation Army was staging an emergency drive to offset an expected loss in income from the United Way.
Capt. Lou Diaz, commanding officer of the Pomona corps of the Salvation Army, said the Mt. Baldy Region of United Way failed to achieve its fund-raising goals, so his organization is trying to raise $12,000 in two weeks to subsidize its local day-care program for preschool children. “That’s not realistic at all,” he said of the goal, “but we’re hopeful.”
Diaz said the day-care program has an enrollment of 77 children for the fall, most of whose parents could not afford even a $5 raise in the weekly fee of $57.
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