Quad Cities, USA: The Salvation Army, Wal-Mart and Durham Bus Service will host the Fifth Annual Stuff the Bus Event at KWQC and all four Quad Cities area Wal-Marts.

PLACE AND TIMES:
KWQC TV Brady St. Drive Thru Friday, July 17, 2015

TIME: 6am TO 6pm
Wal-Marts Saturday, July 18, 2015

Moline, Silvis, Davenport (Elmore, Kimberly)

TIME: 10am - 4pm

Shoppers are encouraged to purchase school supplies and bring them to the school bus so that our community's low-income, homeless, or needy children will be prepared on the first day of school. Items needed include backpacks, loose-leaf paper, spiral notebooks, pencils and pencil boxes, pocket folders, pens, crayons, glue sticks, tissues, scissors, erasers, washable markers, and hand sanitizer.

Tools for School distribution (distribution of all supplies collected), will be held August 12 from 9 am to 3 pm at The Salvation Army Corp, 3400 W Central Park, Davenport for those living in Iowa. In Illinois, Tools for School will be held at The Salvation Army Heritage Temple, 2200 5th Ave, Moline, August 3 to 6 from 9 am to 4 pm. Bring ID of every school aged child, K-8, with current address.

In addition, The Salvation Army Family Stores will be holding their Annual Back to School Sale beginning July 17th and continuing through August 15th. All children's clothing will be priced at 69 cents, many are new items.

March 25, 2015 (Quad Cities):  The Salvation Army announces the closing of the Rock Island Salvation Army Family Store at 2125 - 11th Street, effective March 31, 2015.

The Rock Island Family Store's closure is part of the River Valley Adult Rehabilitation Center's plan called  the Diversification Project.  The Project's goal is to generate enough funding for growth in the future in order to help more people in need.  The Salvation Army provides valuable services to the adults in our community battling addictions.  It is our plan to phase out the smaller 5,000-6,000 sq. ft. stores with limited parking and replacing those stores with more modern looking 20,000 to 30,000 sq. ft. stores with a larger variety of goods to choose from, and with plenty of parking.

The first step in moving forward toward this project is closing the Rock Island Family Store. Fortunately, the staff will be reassigned to work at other Salvation Army Family Stores in the area.

Step two will be closing a small store in Clinton and replacing it with a newer and much larger Clinton 
Family Store in the summer of 2015.  The new Clinton store will be located at 2808 S. 25th Street (formerly Office Max) and will bring 60 new jobs to the area.

Step three involves purchasing a new, larger store in Cedar Rapids to replace a smaller store in that area. The  Salvation Army's goal is to open that store by late summer 2015.

The success of the plan will also require each store to be self-processing.  Captain Alex Velasquez, Adult Rehabilitation Center Administrator explains, "The Salvation Army strives to help our beneficiaries overcome addictions through work therapy/job training.  The larger stores will have the potential to generate more jobs and increase funds to provide addition rehabilitation service in our community, and surrounding areas.   The Salvation Army River Valley Adult Rehabilitation Center provides life skills and job training such as Forklift Driving/Certification, Serve Safe Certification for the restaurant industry, a GED program, and much more."

Major Gary Felton, Quad Cities Coordinator, states that "when this community generously donates their gently used items, The Salvation Army uses those items to transform lives.  The Quad Cities is very fortunate to have an Adult Rehabilitation Center in our community with services that change not just the men in the program, but their entire families' lives."

The $760,000 fund-raising goal accounts for approximately 60 percent of the Quad Cities Salvation Army's operating budget. The funds will help The Salvation Army meet the demand for services for shelter, food, clothing and other basic human needs here in the Quad Cities.

"The Salvation Army's work is simply not possible without the people of this community who believe in what we do.  This final $20,000 is extremely important - this amount of money could provide for all the meals served to the children and their parents at the shelter. Or it could allow us to provide housing and casework to 20 homeless families for two months at the Family Service Center," said Major Gary Felton, Quad Cities Coordinator.

With just a few weeks left, The Salvation Army encourages the community to share what they can with people who have so little.

Mail checks to: The Salvation Army, 301 W. 6^th Street, Davenport, IA 52803

Credit card giving: 1-800-SAL-ARMY or www.salvationarmyqc.org.

If you are interested in learning more about The Salvation Army, its programs in the community and how you can help, please call Holly Nomura at 563-271-7933.

On Friday and Saturday, December 19^th and 20^th

Quad Cities, USA: The Salvation Army is pleased to announce that VON MAUR, the locally owned fashion department store, will sponsor the fourth annual Red Kettle Match Days this weekend.

On December 19^th and 20^th, VON MAUR will make a dollar-for-dollar match to Quad Cities red kettle donations at Northpark and Southpark Malls. The five locations include three 4-foot tall red kettles inside the malls and the two regular kettles outside the mall.

There is a great need for the services of The Salvation Army in the Quad Cities. Many of our neighbors hold down one or more jobs, yet struggle greatly to pay monthly bills that provide the very basics for their families. Donations are needed to help meet this campaign's goal of $760,000. The Salvation Army asks the community to take VON MAUR up on their challenge in order to maximize gifts made to The Salvation Army of the Quad Cities.

Jim von Maur states, "We have always appreciated the work of The Salvation Army and are proud to help support their good work in the community again this year."

Major Gary Felton, Quad Cities Coordinator is "so pleased to partner again with such a notable and admired business in our community. This match is so important to us as we try to close the gap of the remaining $280,000 needed to make our goal."

The Red Kettle campaign provides 60% of the annual budget used by The Salvation Army to provide people with their basic needs, warm shelter and nutritious food, new life skills, character building - anything necessary to help community members achieve healthy, productive living.