Meet Maria
The Salvation Army’s Knoxville Area Command is pleased to announce the addition of Maria Haun to its staff. Maria will serve as the Command’s Volunteer Coordinator. In her role, she will work closely with the Director of Development, Jonathan Haskell and the Director of Community Relations, Rob Link.
Maria was born and raised in East Tennessee. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Music Business and Entrepreneurship from Middle Tennessee State University.
In 2005, she moved to New York City to help start The Gallery Church. During her time there, she filled many roles including Volunteer Coordinator, Event Planner and Administrative Assistant. She also helped start and manage City Uprising, an annual community service and worship event. She moved back to Tennessee in 2009 to be closer to her family. She most recently served as a Clerical Assistant for Wildflower International.
When she’s not working, you can find her volunteering her time in the children’s ministry of OneLife Church or trying out new recipes with her fiancé. She loves coffee and to travel. Her dream destinations to travel to are Ireland and Australia.
Celebrating Stories of Hope
Master of Ceremonies as we celebrated stories of hope. The event raised nearly $190,000 for the Command’s programs and services.
Status Report from our Disaster Response Team in Kentucky
West Liberty, KY
Communication remains difficult and power is still out throughout West Liberty. TSA is currently sharing a Command HQ with Southern Baptist Disaster Relief in efforts to meet the feeding needs throughout the area. The National Guard continues its presence as a logistics and recovery resource, while maintaining security within exposed business and residential areas. The Red Cross has unified its shelter operations into one location at Assembly of Faith Church in West Liberty, where currently 206 residents are registered, with approximately 75 present. Residents were allowed back into West Liberty on Tuesday afternoon.
Due to the challenges in terrain and communication, the concern surrounds the frequent discovery of outlying communities in great need, which have been ”cut off” and without communication, electricity, and transportation. Several local churches, schools, etc. have established smaller distribution locations. .
Due to expanding needs assessments in the West Liberty and surrounding areas, two additional response teams were activated in support of ongoing TSA relief efforts. These include EDS Response Teams from Morehead, KY (Service Unit) and Versailles, KY (Service Unit). Through a partnership with Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, we continue mass feeding distribution within West Liberty, Salyersville, Crockett, Moon, and Woodsbend. The last three (Crockett, Moon, and Woodsbend) were unserved communities within remote rural areas that were discovered by TSA EDS teams following up partial information. TSA has now taken responsibility for feeding and Emotional Care in this communities, as well as provision distribution.)
Due to delays in infrastructure rebuild (communications, electric, etc.), the duration of response requested from TSA has increased to a minimum of two weeks. Volume has fluctuated due to the inevitable contributions from local groups, however, as response/recovery continues, this will decrease. Feeding will have to continue due to the lack of resources/amenities, as recovery crews increase. There is no commercial/private party option for recovery workers due to the extensive damage.
Annual Red Kettle Campaign a Success…THANK YOU!
Thanks to generous donations from the Knoxville area community, thousands of volunteer hours and the support of area retailers, The Salvation Army raised over $587,000 through the 2011 Red Kettle Campaign. The total represents more than a 9% increase over 2010 and exceeded the goal of $500,000. The total includes Knoxville, Maryville, Oak Ridge and Sevierville. The campaign, which kicked off on November 14 and ran through Christmas Eve, is The Salvation Army’s largest fundraising event.
“We’re again overwhelmed with the generosity of our friends and neighbors here in the Knoxville area,” said Major Don Vick. “For the first time in several years, we were ahead of the pace needed to exceed our goal for most of the campaign and take advantage of the drier weather to maximize our kettle locations throughout the command.”
The contributions helped to fund The Salvation Army’s Christmas programs, which helped over 4,300 families in need in 2011. During the Christmas season, the command provided:
~ 1,362 holiday meals served
~ 4,385 families served
~ 8,024 individuals served
~ 2,100food boxes given
~ 4,539 Angels
~ 5,230 stockings
~ 37,843 gifts
~ 23,135 clothing items
The contributions will also help keep area programs and services, which affect nearly 30,000 people in East Tennessee, going throughout 2012.
Honoring Our Volunteers
On August 11, The Salvation Army honored its volunteers with an ice cream social, live music and door prizes. The event, which was held at Cedar Springs Presbyterian Church in West Knoxville, served as a party with a purpose. Volunteers were asked to bring school supplies to help children in need get a head start on the upcoming school year.
“Volunteers are so vital to our ministry that we often call them the army behind the Army,” explained Knoxville Area Commander, Major Don Vick. “They truly are the foundation of our mission and this event is just a small token of our appreciation for everything they do for our community.”
The event honored the thousands of individuals who donated nearly 20,000 hours of time to The Salvation Army last year. However, it was a select few who were recognized for their overwhelming support and dedication to The Salvation Army. The awards this year included the Mary Shafer Award for Outstanding Service to The Salvation Army in honor of the late Mary Shafer, wife of Salvation Army Board Member Emeritus Bo Shafer and a long-time supporter of the organization. This award was given to Kristi Lynch who has donated her time and artistic ability to the mural in The Salvation Army’s Community Garden which was valued at $8,000.
“I just try to share the talent God’s blessed me with to hopefully make a difference,” said Lynch. It’s been an honor to work with The Salvation Army and I would do it again!”
Also recognized were First United Methodist Church, Kiwanis of Maryville, Northside Kiwanis and Stephen Shubiak for 60 hours each of bell ringing during the 2010 Red Kettle Campaign. There were several groups who each adopted 100 Angels during the 2010 Angel Tree Campaign. These groups were: Cooper Realty Investments, The Hobby Williams Salon, St. John’s Cathedral, Morning Star Child Development and Pilot Flying J. Finally, The Girl Scouts of the Beaver Creek Service Unit were recognized for filling 700 stockings during the 2010 campaign.
Garden Creating Community
A monumental volunteer effort has transformed a vacant lot behind The Salvation Army into the Red Shield Community Garden. Already this summer volunteers have harvested corn, radishes, lettuce, cabbage, squash and tomatoes, all of which has been used in our soup kitchen or shared with our emergency assistance clients.
The garden was the vision of Volunteer Coordinator, Yvonne Yates. “We have so many people who want to serve here and it seemed we were constantly using them to clean up this vacant lot,” said Yvonne. “We thought it would be better to put them to work creating something beautiful and productive.”
Since the groundbreaking in March, hundreds of volunteers from a variety of places have been involved, including the WOW Team from St. John’s Lutheran, Cornerstone Church with Knoxville’s Operation Inasmuch and a group from Breakthrough, a local organization dedicated to improving the lives of adults with autism.
Beyond beautifying the space and producing a harvest, one of the best things about the garden is the sense of community that it has helped foster. “On any given day we’ll have homeless volunteers or community service volunteers working alongside church groups or some of our major donors,” said Yvonne. “When these diverse groups of people are working together, it helps them understand one another and creates a real sense of community.”
The symbolism of the project is not lost on Major Don Vick. “We’ve taken something that most people in the community would have considered unattractive and even useless but, with a little work, made it into something beautiful and productive again. It’s what we do in the lives of hundreds of men and women every year.”
For more information on the Community Garden, scan the code with your smart phone, stop by our KnoxRedShield facebook page or visit http://www.SalvationArmyKnoxville.org.
Without the hard work, dedication and donations from those listed below, our community garden would not be the success that it is.
ETCDC Kristi Lynch Ron Duncan
Charles McRae Frank Callo Impromptu
Ellenburg Landscaping & Nursery Champion Day Lilies Mayo Garden Center
Gamma Sigma Sigma Delta Sigma Theta Kappa Alpha Phi
Knox Catholic H.S. Webb School CAK
Kinsey Gardens
Back-to-School Shopping Spree
It may seem like summer just began, but Knoxville area students are already back in school. While most parents are rejoicing and most kids are dreading the inevitable, 30 area students are excited for the new school year thanks to The Salvation Army and Target.
On July 26, Target stores across the country treated more than 12,000 students to an amazing Back-to-School-Spree. The kids were each given an $80 Target GiftCard to choose their favorite school supplies, clothes, and other necessities for the upcoming academic year. Locally, 30 kids from Knoxville, Maryville and Sevierville descended upon the Target store near Knoxville Center Mall and were given an hour to do their shopping.
For some them, this is the first time they’ve ever had brand new school materials. For many, they have a new confidence knowing they don’t have to worry about being picked on or falling behind due to a lack of supplies. For all, the shopping event was a lot of fun.
We want to wish a huge THANKS to our partner Target for their $1 million donation that is supporting the education and development of thousands of Salvation Army youth program participants.
