Annual Discovery of Gold Coin in Salvation Army Kettle Happens in Downtown Portland

It happens every year - Salvation Army volunteers are going through the donations to their kettles and a gold coin is discovered. This time it happened as workers were going through the kettle from in front of the Nordstrom in downtown Portland.

It was Sunday afternoon and they were emptying what had been collected the day before. In the kettle was a one-ounce worth approximately $1,300.

"We are touched by the generosity of our community," says Major Ken Perine, Corps Officer for The Salvation Army Portland Tabernacle. "We continue to be blessed year after year by generous gold coin donors, and while we never expect them, we are so grateful to them. We are humbled that they choose us to be the steward of their donation."

This donation brings The Salvation Army that much closer to reaching its goal of $750,000 but with just under three weeks of bell ringing left in the kettle season, there is still a great need.

In fact, several stores who have participated in the past have closed, which means that The Salvation Army is down a few opportunities for bell ringing. For one Salvation Army Corps, this equals about $1,200 less every day.

Kettles can be found at participating Fred Meyer, Safeway, Albertson's, Bi-Mart, BigLots, Fry's Electronics, Hobby Lobby, JcPenney, Macy's, Shopko, Walgreen's, and Walmart locations across the Portland Metro area.

The iconic Red Kettle Campaign began in 1891 in San Francisco and has since become a Christmas tradition.

Photo Salvation Army-Portland