Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Averaging 70 years old, the ladies of the Salvation Army Women’s Auxiliary are active members of the service club who aren’t there just to socialize.
This year, the Salvation Army Women’s Auxiliary (SAWA) is celebrating 50 years. It started April 29, 1968, with then-Captains Howard and Pearl Palomaki, Ada Eagler, Georgia Kaufman and E. Mazie Alexander.
They had their charter meeting June 3, 1968, at Westminster Hotel in Winona Lake. Charter members included Kaufman, Cora Kile, Lois Dalton, Maureen Hall, Adaline Hall, Pat McKelvey, Mary Edith Funk and Alexander. Alexander died March 28, 2017, and was the last of the founding members.
This year about 70 women are involved.
“The Women’s Auxiliary, here and throughout the U.S., and many other places, helps the local Salvation Army with different areas financially,” said Salvation Army Corps Major Trish Welch. “They do some fundraising so we can do some more programs or do programs better.”
Programs Supported
Two programs SAWA supports are school shoes and work clothes and shoes.
“If a person gets hired on a new job and needs clothing, they come in here and ask, and we are able to do that. We would not be able to do without those kinds of funds,” Welch said, adding the Salvation Army provides any clothing needed for a job, from a tie to steel-toed shoes.
“Each year, the ladies decide how much money they’re going to be able to supply for these different programs. Some of them are working with the children on Tuesday nights with character-building programs, and some of them involve hygiene items to go into the pantry. They have helped with the toy shop or the Christmas giveaway each year. Right now we are doing the Angel Tree program and they help to set that up every year,” Welch said.
With the Angel Tree program, she said the SAWA doesn’t “help with the buying of the items, they help with the handing out of those items. So they’re not only about helping with funds, they’re about volunteering their time.”
According to the SAWA budget, youth programs receive $6,500; school shoes, $6,000; work clothes and shoes, $8,000; teen gift cards, $3,000;
Pathway of Hope, $4,000; hygiene, $4,000; and Baskets of Hope, $200, for a total of $31,700.
“For a small band of women, we give this every year, so it does make a little impact. That little wedge of the community is answered by these women coming in. I would say the average age of these women is probably about (70). So it’s an older group of incredibly giving women,” Auxiliary President Teri Jarrette said.
