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Salvation Army sets up giant red kettle in Downtown Detroit

Holiday season is quickly approaching

DETROIT – It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Downtown Detroit.

The city’s Christmas tree is up and so is the giant red kettle. Lt. Col. John Turner is the Salvation Army Divisional Commander for the Eastern Michigan Division.

The red kettle is 56 feet tall and 24 feet wide. It has 2,600 lights on it that light up at night. It’s purpose is to ask people to donate.

“Eighty-seven cents of every dollar goes t direct donation to Salvation Army. That’s a big bang for your buck if you’re giving to Salvation Army,” Turner said.

Bell ringers will be out starting on Nov. 13, and this year, like everything else, because of COVID-19 things will be different.

“They’ll be using hand sanitizer, they’ll wipe down the kettle after donations. They’ll have gloves on, they’ll have the mask on, they’ll stand 6 feet away from the kettle,” he said.

The Salvation Army hopes to raise $8 million this year for their #RescueChristmas campaign. Tuner said every dollar donated is important because many people need help this year.

“In addition to what we normally see this time of year, we have seen an increase of about 10 percent because of the pandemic,” he said.

READ: More community coverage


About the Authors
Kim DeGiulio headshot

You can watch Kim on the morning newscast weekdays from 4:30 to 7 a.m., and frequently doing reports on the 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts.

Kayla Clarke headshot

Kayla is a Web Producer for ClickOnDetroit. Before she joined the team in 2018 she worked at WILX in Lansing as a digital producer.

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