Volunteering for The Salvation Army’s Christmas Kettle Campaign since 1957
For 65 years, Bill Isaac, 89, has been a volunteer for The Salvation Army’s Christmas Kettle Campaign in Kelowna, B.C. Since 1957 he has served as a member of the church, contributing to different programs and campaigns throughout the years for The Salvation Army. Today, he is focused on helping count the incoming Kettle Campaign donations.
As a man of faith, the values of The Salvation Army are what inspire Isaac to serve.
“Helping The Salvation Army is something that I always wanted to do for the Lord. And I love the way they help people. It warms my heart every time I hear them talk about the Lord and I am happy to be part of it,” Isaac said.
As a former banker, counting money comes naturally to him. Since his early days of volunteering for The Salvation Army, Isaac has held duties involving financial oversight.
“For as long as the Lord allows me to, I will help The Salvation Army.”
“When I first started volunteering, they found out I was a banker, so they immediately assigned me the position of treasurer,” he said.
According to Major Mark Wagner of the Kelowna Salvation Army, Kelowna’s Kettle Campaign is run by a large pool of volunteers. This makes committed volunteers like Isaac, so crucial to the success of the campaign each year.
“Our entire bell-ringing force consists of volunteers. I think roughly speaking we have close to 900 volunteers so far,” Major Wagner said.
Kelowna’s Christmas campaign hopes to raise $850,000 this year. They are always looking for more volunteers and donors to support the cause.
As for Bill Isaac, he says he has a lifelong commitment to serving within The Salvation Army.
“I have 11 more years to go since my niece says I am going to live to see 100. For as long as the Lord allows me to, I will help The Salvation Army,” Isaac said.
Uncle Vinny’s Toy Drive Donates Over 1,500 Toys
Three years ago, the Maan family lost Vinny during the holiday season. He was a caring son, brother, and a loving uncle to his nieces and nephews. “He would do anything to make the kids happy,” says his sister Pinder. Vinny was known for his love of the Christmas season and enjoyed giving gifts and playing with the kids. “We really look forward to the holidays as a family … the gatherings, cheer, the lights,” but that year things were different says Pinder.
“We were sitting around, feeling sorry for ourselves, in a dark, dark place. He would have hated for us to be like that.”
The family decided they wanted to do something to honour him, to continue his legacy of gift giving, and help other families in need. In 2021 they launched Uncle Vinny’s Toy Drive and started to collect gifts around the community while family in Ontario took on the same initiative there. The initial goal was to collect 100 toys, possibly even 200, but to their delight the campaign took off. “Never did I think that we would hit over 1,600 and nearly 3,400 between BC and Ontario last year,” Pinder recalls. Toys collected in the Lower Mainland went to The Salvation Army Boundless Vancouver Toy Shop, a place where families who otherwise would not be able to afford presents are gifted the dignity to select toys based on their children’s interest right off the shelves.
This year The Salvation Army returned to the Maan family home in Surrey to pick up another generous donation of 1,580 toys that were collected in wrapped donation bins placed in local businesses. “This year we actually had people reaching out to us saying they want to be part of this,” says Pinder, noting that she is preparing to pick up some late donations to add to the total. Vinny’s father also worked to create toques that were sold for a minimum donation of $15, allowing the family to then use that money raised to buy additional toys.
“We were looking for an organization where we know the most will go back to the community, and we know The Salvation Army is known for that.”
The family’s favourite part of the toy drive is the joy that it creates, “seeing all the toys around that tree and knowing how many kids we’re able to impact, that’s a huge thing for all of us just to know how many families we will touch.” The family also enjoys using this toy drive as a reason to get together, especially around the anniversary of Vinny’s passing. Everyone is so excited to see how many toys they’re able to collect, “what a better way to honour him, especially over the holidays,” says Pinder.
After two great years the family plans to continue this new Christmas tradition, “we want to carry on his legacy for giving, carrying, and sharing … we’re working hard to make him proud, I’m sure he’s up there, smiling down and saying, ‘that’s because of me!”
How Play Can Bring Recovery & Re-Creation
Fabio Russo is the friendly face that greets you when you arrive at The Salvation Army’s Harbour Light facility in Vancouver. He’s been working at the front desk for about five years now, but before that he was a client himself.
Fabio was born and raised in Montreal. During his younger years, he worked with his dad in the steel industry. Every summer. from the age of six, he would go to work with his dad to manufacture garage doors. He was always surrounded by older people. People who were 20, 30, 40 years older than him. Unfortunately, this led to him making some bad decisions to fit in with the people he was hanging out with, and eventually he was struggling with addiction.
When Fabio hit rock bottom in 2012, he encountered a six-foot-four man staring straight into his eyes who said, “hey bud it’s never too late”. Fabio didn’t think much about it but the next day, he bumped into Simon, an employee from Vancouver Harbour Light. He told Fabio “there are other solutions, you don’t have to live like this.” The day after Fabio decided to call detox.
He went into detox for 10 days and met Darcy McCarthy. “She really guided me and made me stay. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t have stayed, I’m pretty sure of that.”
After that, Fabio completed a full year of treatment. “I had the best counselor ever, Lida Bahrami. she is an amazing lady.”
Fabio hoped that his work ethic would get him the chance to work at Vancouver Harbour Light. Because he learned his work ethic from his father and he knew that would make him proud.
“Because everything I learned is from him—work ethics. And here I am, five years later, clean, and sober. And yeah, it’s all because of The Salvation Army, definitely. There’s no question about it.”
Vancouver Harbour Light offers a whole range of programming, a continuum of care that includes community meals, shelters, detox, residential addiction treatment, a correctional halfway house, low-income housing, and much more. As a Salvation Army facility, a key component of Habour Light’s programming is spiritual care, and one aspect of spiritual care is play. This includes physical, cultural and social activities like hiking, biking, rock climbing, museum visits, and symphony concerts.
“We don’t necessarily associate recovery with play, but it is a very crucial part of recovery,” says Cindy Cheung, Community Engagement Coordinator of Vancouver Harbour Light.
During Fabio’s years with addiction, he isolated himself a lot from other people. He was always an outgoing guy and loved people, but the addiction eliminated that from his life. This is when he was introduced to softball. This game brought unity and camaraderie back into his life.
Play shows clients like Fabio another outlet where they can de-stress. many people do not fall into addiction because they like the drug, but because it is a coping mechanism for life trauma or a difficult life situation. Play allows them to reconnect with others as part of their recovery.
At Harbour Light, we like to have a holistic approach to recovery. Not only do we have the medical part, the detox, the counseling, the treatment, and the offer of spiritual support, which are all very important, too. But we also encourage clients to grow holistically by discovering hobbies, engaging in the community and playing. Something our whole team is very supportive of.
For more information, please visit VancouverHarbourLightSA.ca/spiritual-care
Greater Vancouver Advisory Board Welcomes Our Newest Member
Earlier this year the Greater Vancouver Advisory Board welcomed our newest member, Sharon Singh. A well-recognized lawyer in the community she brings a great deal of leadership experience to our group.
Sharon is a partner at Bennett Jones law firm and was recommended to us by Greg D’Avignon, CEO of the Business Council of BC. She provides advice on regulatory, governance, environmental, and Aboriginal law to infrastructure, mining, energy, construction, and agribusiness sectors. She is recognized for her proven ability to create collaborative relationships with Indigenous nations, local communities and regulators, and implementing Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices and reporting within organizations.
Sharon is recognized as a leading lawyer, including in The Legal 500: Canada and Chambers, and is a Business in Vancouver’s 40 under 40 recipient and Lexpert’s Rising Star. In March 2016, Sharon was awarded a Wendy McDonald Award, in the category of Women of Promise by the Leadership Circle of the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade.
See the full list of Advisory Board members at salvationarmy.ca/britishcolumbia/our-team/ vancouver-advisory-board
Thanks to you, our generous supporters, we can continue Giving Hope Today … and every day. Go to salvationarmy.ca/donations to continue making a difference.
