ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, December 15, 1995 TAG: 9512150088
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
AN ABANDONED STORE filled with goods both donated and "bought on faith" is the Salvation Army's way of spreading holiday cheer to thousands of needy families during the Christmas season.
Maj. Lynda Delaney shifted from one numb foot to the other and shoved her hands deep in her red quilted vest.
"The boiler's busted," said Delaney, who with her husband, Maj. Dan Delaney, commands the Salvation Army Roanoke Corps.
The organization has taken over the former Woolworth store at the Plaza of Roanoke-Salem in Northwest Roanoke for its annual Christmas distribution. The building has been vacant since 1993, the boiler broken almost as long.
So Lynda Delaney and a group of volunteers shivered in the building's cold concrete interior as they stacked toys, sorted clothes and filled slim, padded brown bags with sacks of potatoes and liter bottles of cola.
"Last year, I could see these bags in my sleep," volunteer Maxine Jones said as she waded through five rows of bags, each 75 deep. Visions of brown bags likely would be floating through her head this year too, she said.
Because by Wednesday - the day the distribution center opens - Jones and other volunteers will have filled each of about 4,000 bags with a week's worth of food, enough for an equal number of families.
Most of the families signed up for the distribution the week before Thanksgiving. Some were referred by social services agencies. Most are the working poor, "who don't have anything extra to buy what their children expect at Christmas," Lynda Delaney said.
Each year, the number grows, Dan Delaney said.
"We've probably got 300 to 400 more this year," he said. "Why? Because of the uneasiness of our nation: People don't know if they're going to have a job or not; the government's closing down; what's happening with welfare. People aren't sure what's going to happen tomorrow."
Just as uncertain are the Salvation Army's holiday efforts to raise money to finance the annual project.
Lynda Delaney orders toys from a wholesaler in the summer. They're delivered in November. Bellringers hit the streets with kettles, and the holiday mail campaign is launched shortly after. The bills are paid at the end of the year with whatever's raised.
If contributions fall short - $60,000 short last year - the deficit is the first thing paid once the next year's contributions roll in.
"Some people think we save money from last year and use it this year," Dan Delaney said. "We don't do that. We actually take the money from this year and pay this year's bills. There is no reserve."
The organization set a goal of raising $500,000 this holiday season. About $400,000 of it will be spent on the Christmas distribution center. The rest will be used for winter relief programs - helping people with utility and rent.
About half of that goal has been met, Delaney said. Kettle contributions are about where they were last year, with $120,614 raised so far. But the mail campaign is running $40,000 to 50,000 behind, with $119,446 raised so far. One problem was the two- to three-week delay in starting the campaign, so it wouldn't collide with other community fund-raising efforts, he said.
But Delaney has faith.
"I believe the same people will give, but will be giving later because we sent it out later," he said. The mail campaign ends Jan. 30. "I'm a little uneasy but hoping and praying that the same people will give."
Delaney admits it is a tenuous way to operate. But it's how the Salvation Army has done its holiday business - the Christmas distribution, the winter relief, the gift packets for nursing home residents and jail inmates - for years.
"When you have somebody standing in front of you about to be thrown out of their house because they can't pay rent, you tend to pay the rent rather than put them in a shelter or leave them standing out in the street," he said.
Lynda Delaney has worked long hours this week. Tuesday, she shuttled between the Salvation Army office in Southeast Roanoke and the distribution center across town. She got home at 3:30 a.m. Wednesday, slept for a few hours, then went back to work at 8:30 a.m.
Wednesday was a bit longer. Delaney got home at 4:15 a.m. - Thursday.
"This is our life," she said. "This is what we do. I thrive on it. I don't know what I'd do at Christmas if I didn't have this."
The Salvation Army Christmas distribution center will be open Wednesday through Friday from 9 a.m.-6 p.m. The U.S. Marine Corps will distribute toys collected in its Toys for Tots campaign at the distribution center.
VOLUNTEERING
How you can still give of your time, and where:
Catawba Hospital: Needs gift wrappers for Operation Santa Claus. Contact Jane Wills at 375-4342 by Monday. Adults, 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
Mental Health Association of Roanoke Valley: Needs hosts and hostesses for Festival of Trees at First Union Tower. Call Linda Ferguson-Saunders at 344-0931 about shifts from now until Dec. 24.
Salvation Army: Needs volunteers for annual Christmas distribution Wednesday through Friday at the Plaza of Roanoke-Salem. Needs volunteers now to pack 4,000 food bags to be given to families at the distribution. Call Kim Hall at 343-5335.
Blue Ridge Independent Living Center: Needs volunteers to help people take down their trees after Christmas. Call Kristin Beindorf at 342-1231. Request schedule.
RAM (Roanoke Area Ministries) House: Needs volunteers to prepare and serve food from 8 a.m.-2 p.m. and to work the front desk from 9 a.m.-noon and noon-3 p.m. Call Judy Diehl at 345-9786. Ages 14 and up.
U.S. Marine Corps Toys for Tots:Volunteers needed for toy distribution at Salvation Army's Christmas distribution Wednesday through Friday. Ages 14 and up.
Raleigh Court Health Care Center: Welcomes people who are willing to share their musical talents, craft skills and pets with residents. Call Suzanne Verdu at 342-9525.
- Council of Community Services
LENGTH: Long : 120 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ERIC BRADY/Staff. Reggie Harris, a Salvation Armyby CNBvolunteer, checks a stack of toys to be given to area children
starting Wednesday. color. 2. Salvation Army volunteers spend
Thursday loading food bags at the old Woolworth store on Melrose
Avenue Northwest.