Published: May 03, 2008 10:35 pm         

Now every donation will be matched for Camp-4-Kids

guest column

Hello to all the readers of this wonderful paper and thank you to those who have already made the dream of camp for a week in the Eastern Panhandle, and a fun day camp here, possible for the kids of our community.

I recently, with eyes closed, took the handle of the gas nozzle from its perch and placed it in the tank of the vehicle I drive. As the liquid gold poured into the tank, I looked at the price of gas and just shuddered at the horrible reality that comes with high gas prices. A high gas price for many of you means an altered schedule this spring and summer as well as a restricted lifestyle. The news I watched just the other day said many will not take vacations or will just stay and do something local this year because the cost of gas is so absolutely horrible.

We at The Salvation Army are making those same decisions today for what we will do this June, July and August. Our decisions are based on the increase not only in gas prices and the impact on what we do here at The Salvation Army, but also the impact those prices are having on everything we use from milk for the children to food for hungry families. Prices are going up. I went to the market the other day and for just one half gallon of milk we paid over $2. In addition to the price that you and I are fighting with everything going up, we have here in southern West Virginia many neighbors who have no food and they have no rent because what little money comes in is gone.

This summer they will also need to figure out how to feed their children the breakfast and lunch they get at school. We at The Salvation Army will provide that lunch three days a week to the children of our day camps and to hundreds of families who will come to get a food box from The Salvation Army.

When you make a tax-deductible donation to Camp-4-Kids, you do more than send a kid to camp, you feed and house that kid for as many as six days and you help to feed hundreds of hungry people from our community.

We are able to do this together because we have a matching grant from an anonymous donor who will match every dollar you contribute up to $20,000. With the matching monies in excess of what camp costs us, we are able to feed the hundreds of hungry neighbors we have here in southern West Virginia and the Greenbrier Valley.

I ask you to make your best donation to this year’s Camp-4-Kids campaign by mailing a check to The Salvation Army, P.O. Box 1573, Beckley, WV 25801. Please mark the memo with Camp-4-Kids and your county of residence.

— Capt. Bob Cornett and his wife Julie are the chief corps officers for The Salvation Army in southern West Virginia and the Greenbrier Valley.