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Hollywood ending eludes evicted Salvation Army kettle - or does it?
January 9th, 2009, 6:30 am · 8 Comments · posted by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer
So there’s good news and bad news.
- The good news is that, despite the awful economy, Orange County’s donations to those iconic Salvation Army kettles grew 31.4 percent in 2008, over the year before.
- The bad news: The now-infamous Brea kettle - booted from its traditional spot outside the Birch Street post office and relocated to Brea Mall - actually took in 12.7 percent less in 2008 than the year before.
The Brea story isn’t as dire as it seems: The kettle wasn’t doing so well at the post office for the eight days it was there - averaging just $133 per day. Once it moved to the mall, it averaged $277 per day (and stayed for 18 days), according to Salvation Army figures.
Colleague Lou Ponsi unleashed a firestorm when he wrote about how Sean Thomas complained about a church kettle on federal land at the Brea post office. Turns out that U.S. Postal Service regulations prohibit any organization from soliciting on post office property.
And so the kettle moved, to a spot outside Brea Mall’s J.C. Penney store. That made a lot of people mad - one man sought out the kettle and stuffed in a $500 check in protest - and Thomas received lots of nasty 
phone calls and emails.
In the wake of such church v. state fireworks, another kettle was asked to leave a Placentia post office’s property. But several others were allowed to stay. Donations had been lagging more than 30 percent before the controversy hit, and the Salvation Army sees the whole episode as a blessing in disguise.
“The total reponse was such a positive - I think it raised people’s awareness,” said Barry Frost of the Salvation Army. ”People saw the kettles and really noticed them, thought ‘This is an organization that needs help,’ and wanted to show that they care.”
Here are the kettle contribution totals for 2008:
- Countywide: $260,138.47 (up from $197,954.92)
- Brea kettle: $6,049.76 (down from $6,932.42)
Qualifiers: The Brea kettle averaged almost the same take per day in both years, give or take a dollar. In 2008, it was out for 26 days; and in 2007, it was out for 30 days. The average was about $232 per day.
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Hope that b¡tch Sean gets what’s coming to him. See what happens when you tattle tale? LMFAO ROFLMFAO!!!
I put money in the Salvation Army kettles for the first time this year. I will put money in every year for the rest of my life. If Sean Thomas wants my yes on eight yard sign I will give it to him along with my suggestion on where he can put it.
I put money in ever year. This year things were tighter so I pledged to put $1 in every time I passed one until I reached my goal - and when I hadn’t met that goal, put in the rest. Wanted all the bell ringers to feel they were noticed and doing good as they don’t know what you are putting in. I’m with caseclosed on that suggestion! Can’t wait till Sean Thomas needs help!
caseclosed:
Your a fool if you believe in prop 8. Get a life and quit being such a biggot. The unfortunate news for you is that prop 8 is on its way to be overturned. So sorry. Not to scare you but the next president will not only be black but also “gay”. You should just pack your bags and leave now. Trust me, we won’t miss ya!
I used to give to the Salvation Army, now all of my donations are going to the ACLU.
What was missed in the article was that this Sean Thomas misrepresented himself in the position he claimed to have at his church. This was confirmed to me when I e-mailed the U.U.C. at Fullerton criticizing him and an official was kind enough to reply stating that Thomas’ position did not even exist there and also that they were opposed to the stance he took, being 100% supportive of the Salvation Army! Why the Register reporter did not follow up on this I don’t know as I forwarded the U.U.C. e-mail to him.
With the advent of email and other forms of communication, I wouldn’t be surprised that the overall traffic at post offices is dropping anyway.
When did Separation of Church and State become State Attacks Church, anyway? The church of the no-church does more to try and use the state to destroy “other” churches. Maybe the no-church people should be considered a church and be barred from their activities!
I thought the salvation Army used the money to hope people rehabilitate and find jobs. I guess that’s something our country doesn’t need right now. Weird.