Dana Gall, a social worker for the Salvation Army, began her job on July 14. Little did she know how heavy of a burden she would bear. She is responsible for distributing all the services of the Salvation Army including electrical, water, rent, mortgage, Christmas, food, and clothing assistance to people who are in need.

“It takes a certain personality to work this job,” she said.

Dana Gall, the newest member of the High Country Salvation Army, says she is ready to start serving those in need. Photo by Tiffany Allison

Gall explained clients feel guilty or ashamed of asking for finical help.

“You have to make people feel comfortable when they’re not and let people know they’re not the only ones that need help and they’re not the only people in this situation, especially with the economic situation.”

The Salvation Army has received an influx of clients over the past few months because of the economic situation. And people are frantically seeking help. WeCAN (an adjunct of the Hospitality House), the Department of Social Services and the Salvation Army are among offer emergency service of this nature around the High Country. The Salvation Army never hands out money directly to the client, but works with the billing organizations like New River Power and Blue Ridge Electric and pledge to pay a certain amount of the bill if the clients pay the rest. The amount of money pledged is based on a case-by-case basis and determined by the individual’s financial situation.

“We have a set budget every month that we can dispense,” Gall said. “We have families or clients that come in and we interview them and see what their needs are.”

“We are more crisis assistance than long-term assistance,” she said.

Clients are allowed to receive financial-crisis assistance, including rent, water, electrical and mortgage payments, once a year. They can receive clothing every six months, which is subject to seasonal changes and food every three months.

The Salvation Army has recently opened its food bank with donations from local schools. For example, seventh graders from Green Valley School raised around 1,900 cans for the food bank. Until they serve 50 clients with food they are unable to receive donations from Second Harvest food bank in Winston-Salem.

“We have almost reached our goal of 50 clients,” she said. “We will soon get meat, bread and frozen food from Second Harvest on a monthly basis.”

The High Country Salvation Army is part of the Hickory core-command office lead by Major Kent Davis. Their services are available to both Watauga and Avery County.

The Salvation Army has started its Red Kettle Campaign and is looking for volunteers to help raise money for their Christmas assistance. Last year the group raised $19,000 and hopes to raise more this year. Kettles will be posted in business around the High Country including Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Belk and Lowes Food.

“The merchants here are really great to work with,” Jerry Walker, chairman of the local Salvation Army board, said. “We’re hoping to have some kettles in Avery. In the past we have been at Lowes Food in Tynecastle and Ingles in Newland. We hope to be back in those places it’s just a matter of getting a volunteer coordinator over there.”

Due to lack of volunteers, the group has hired eight staff members who are responsible for manning kettles. The rest are volunteers.

“The point is we want to man the kettles because a kettle with a person gets a lot more donations then one just hanging there,” Walker said.

Walker explained that 83 percent of the money earned in the Salvation Army is distributed to the people and all of the money raised by the group stays in the High Country.

The Salvation Army is also accepting winter coats from local cleaner, A Cleaner World, under the “Give a Kid a Coat” effort and the Mast General store with “Share the Warmth.” A Cleaner World cleans and mends the coats donated and donates twice a week to the Salvation Army thrift store. Hardin Park School’s second and third graders have also started collecting coats.

“They are so excited to understand what it is that they are doing and to know where it is going,” Gall said.

For more information about volunteering for the Salvation Army or about their services please contact Dana Gall at (828) 355-9429.