MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – November 13 is billed as “Salvation Army Saturday”; it will be a campaign launch day and lots of music.
“On November 13 at 11:30 am we will be kicking off our Angel Tree and Red Kettle campaigns, so we are very happy to have several featured guests including the Army National Capital Group of Hi, ”said Lt. Sheldon Greenland of the Salvation Army of Marion, Monongalia and Preston counties. “And we’re going to have a whole group there during our Angel Tree and Red Kettle campaign launches. And, we also have the Mayor of Westover and another musical group, the string quartet called Flute Staccato.
The launch event will take place in the food court at Morgantown Shopping Center.
Additionally, Salvation Army Lt. Nicole Greenland said the event will have “a special function” which will be a dance between the Salvation Army Cpt. Walmart Kettle and Sparky.
“The manager of Walmart decided to dress you in his costume and put on a dance to see who wins and maybe who could raise the most money that day,” Lt. Nicole Greenland said.
Later today at 3 pm Salvation Army Saturday will feature a concert called “The Hope Marches on Concert”.
It will be in association with the University of West Virginia. The university’s School of Music will even host the event where the 35-member Salvation Army National Capital Orchestra will perform.
“We will be presenting them there as well as Monongalia Brass, which is the graduate quintet group from WVU’s Music School, so we look forward to that,” said Lt. Sheldon Greenland. “It will be at the Creative Arts Center, Lyell B Clay Theater at 3pm”
National Capital Band conductor Steve Kellner said spectators can expect the band to perform “a bit of everything.”
Kellner said the 150-year-old group offers many different types of musical styles.
“What I always say to audiences is’ if you don’t like it, wait five minutes and they’ll have another style coming up and you’ll probably like that.”
Obviously, said Kellner, “this is a very important time of year for The Salvation Army” because it is the bulk of the fundraising for the association. This fundraising effort funds everything the organization does throughout the year. Getting the chance to help a local Salvation Army fundraiser through music, Kellner said, is what the group lives for.
Lt. Nicole Greenland said the National Capital Band will end their day in Morgantown with a second performance, the “Instruments of Praise Concert” to be held at 6.30pm.
She said she would be held in conjunction “with Faith Baptist Church, right there on Greenbag Rd., Where the Morgantown Christian Academy School Band will also be performing with the National Capital Band, so it’s a long day.”
Greenland continued: “But it will be a good uplifting day. And it’s all free, FREE, free, free to the public. We just want to bring joy to Morgantown because we are down due to COVID, so it’s just to lighten up the environment. “
It will be a long day, but it will only be one day, so everyone must enjoy it, the Salvation Army said.
It’s unclear when the National Capital Band will return to Morgantown and the nonprofit only launches its holiday campaigns once a year.
“We need people to come forward, so we’re looking for a really good turnout so that we can get the message across that The Salvation Army is a multi-faceted, evangelical part of the universal Christian Church that serves people without any discrimination. Said Lieutenant Sheldon Greenland. “Because everything we do, we want people to have the benefit of knowing personally who Jesus is. Most importantly, we want everyone to be able to live and live life well.
Greenland said you can register here to become a Red Kettle bellringer.
Lt. Nicole Greenland said that when it comes to Angel Tree locations, they will have “trees in different locations”.
“We will have the angels at Walmart on University Town Center where they will have their tree and you will see the angels there,” Greenland said. “And we’ll have some at the downtown library as well as the Morgantown Mall and Mountaineer Mall.” We’ll have it at Shoney’s, so if you’re having dinner, when you walk into Shoney’s, you’ll see the Christmas tree with the angels on it. Now, these angels will have the child’s name, age, and gender. And then they will have the wish list and sizes of clothes, coats and shoes. All you have to do is go pick an angel or two or three, or four or five and go out and shop for the angels.
