
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 15, 1994                    TAG: 9406150438 
SECTION: LOCAL                     PAGE: B4    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: BY PATRICK K. LACKEY, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: 940615                                 LENGTH: Short

SALVATION ARMY WILL SEEK SOME YULE SPIRIT IN JULY

{LEAD} Brass bands will blare Christmas carols in South Hampton Roads the third week of July.

Relax, there's no plot to speed up Christmas shopping.

{REST} The music will be part of a Salvation Army food and fund drive called ``Christmas in July.''

At 18 locations during July 19-23, bell-ringers will urge shoppers to drop money into kettles. Canned food donations will be sought at 32 Food Lions from July 18-23.

It will be the first Salvation Army kettle drive outside the Christmas season since the charitable organization came to Hampton Roads in 1906, said Cynthia Gerald, a Salvation Army fund raiser.

``We have empty coffers,'' said Betty Liston, business administrator for the Tidewater Area Salvation Army, ``but we still have people asking for help. Somehow we have to fill that deficit.''

The food drive last Christmas season was less successful than most, Liston said.

The local Salvation Army is serving about 10 percent more meals this year than last, she said. It served 11,658 in May, compared with 10,728 in May 1993.

A canned food collection will be made at Harbor Park on ``Salvation Army Night,'' July 19.

The organization needs volunteers to help store food collected and to ring bells by the kettles. If you're interested, call 622-7275.

The bell-ringers will not be dressed like Santa. They don't dress like Santa even at Christmastime.

Instead, they will wear T-shirts that say ``Christmas in July.''

by CNB