> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Salvation found on Fourth Street - URL: https://www.smdp.com/salvation-found-on-fourth-street/ - Published: 2004-11-26T16:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T05:42:09.000Z - Author: Guest Author - Tags: Business, Santa Monica, #archive-import, Homeless *Local programs funded through kettle donations* *By PAM WIGHT Special to the Daily Press* Many people might only know the Salvation Army as the local thrift store, or the truck service that will pick up used furniture from the curbside. Or, of course, the bell-ringing kettle people who they hurry past on their way to do their holiday shopping. But it is also a non-denominational Christian church, which dates back to its founding in 1865 by Englishman William Booth. “The Salvation Army has been raising money at Christmas time with the kettle people at grocery stores for 115 years,” said Captain Brian West, a pastor at the Santa Monica Corps. of the Army on Fourth Street. “We bring out the kettles one week before Thanksgiving and go until Dec. 24 — this year 32 days of collecting.” The Christmas season is the Army’s busiest time of year and the most lucrative. Each kettle makes a minimum of $200 to $300 per day, and can make significantly more as Christmas draws closer, West said. With between 15 to 20 kettles out each day in Santa Monica, their goal is to raise at least $105,000 this holiday season. Only three or four kettle people are volunteers. The rest are paid. “We do have to pay our bell ringers to stand,” West said. “So we put them on the payroll because it’s for 30 days. Some people ask if we pay them from the kettles, but those days are long gone.” The kettle program to help the poor began with one giant kettle on the docks of San Francisco where people would toss their money. Money collected goes into the Army’s general fund where, after administration costs, it goes directly to the numerous community programs the organization offers. But West insists the Army is not just about the “kettle people.” “We’re in 108 countries around the world doing our ministry, helping people,” West said. “We have family programs year-round that can help people make a rent payment or a utility payment. We have shelters, job programs, summer camps, character-building programs, we visit the elderly shut-ins and more.” One such benefactor of West’s ministry was Nancy Thies, who said the Army was there to help her through a personal crisis. “I began helping at the ‘Welfare Window,’” Thies said. “That’s where people can come up and ask for food, clothing or rental assistance, stuff like that. Most people look right through homeless people instead of at them. Talking to people who came to the window helped me see them.” “This place helped me make the decision to change my life,” Torres said. “I felt like enough was enough. Now I work here and go to school for chiropractor assistant and massage therapy. I’m almost finished. It beats prison.” The Army has other programs for the holiday season, such as the Salvation Army Carolers. Although there are no actual singers, people can hire the Salvation Army Band for Christmas parties or other seasonal events. The Adopt-A-Family program allows people to donate a care package of food and gifts to a needy family through an anonymous exchange. In addition to the usual canned food drive, the Army sponsors the Christmas Angel Program, through which people can buy a gift for a specific needy child anonymously. But holidays are not the only time the Army provides help to those in trouble. It also runs a homeless shelter in Santa Monica called the Samoshel shelter. For 100 homeless people who are not part of a shelter program, the Army provides showers, lockers and washing machines for their use at a place called Shwashlock, a combination of the three services. All of the money raised by the Santa Monica Salvation Army is exclusively used on local programs, West said. No money goes to any international or national program unless it is to help a specific disaster, such as the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks or past earthquakes. “Without the community we would never be able to help people like we do,” said West. The Salvation Army advisory board includes Jean McNeil Wyner of the Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center, Frank Fabrega of the Santa Monica Police Department and Tony Presby of Santa Monica College, to name a few. *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 26, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/112604.pdf?ref=smdp.com)