DANVILLE — It’s mid-morning and women with young children in tow file in and out of Danville’s Salvation Army headquarters at 855 E. Fairchild St.

Moms scour the racks hoping to find warm winter coats for their children, while others sign up for Christmas food baskets and toys from Toys for Tots.

“We’ve been pretty busy,” case worker Sharon Sawka said, as cars spilled over into an auxiliary parking lot and more families headed toward the door.

Busy seems like an understatement. With the sour economy, more local residents than ever are seeking assistance, especially with food and toys for Christmas. The trend started last winter.

“Last year, we did double compared to the year before,” said Capt. Judy Lowder, referring to the Christmas assistance programs that served 900 local families in 2008.

This year the organization expects to serve just as many families, if not more.

But the need in the community doesn’t end with providing a Christmas meal and toys under the tree.

Sawka and Lowder both said they are now helping people who have never sought assistance before and who once donated to the Salvation Army. Suddenly faced with no health insurance due to job loss, some are turning to the organization to help offset the cost of their medications or for help with other expenses.

“It’s (help) with everything,” Sawka said. “I’ve had people come in and say they’ve never done this before.”

Lowder agreed. “They come in here and say, ‘What do I do? I usually am the one giving you a check and now I need help.’ It’s difficult for them because they don’t know what to do.

“For a lot of people coming here for the first time, it’s humbling.”

“So many people are living paycheck to paycheck. They have to make hard decisions, but thankfully we’re here to help,” Lowder said.

Holiday cheer

Last year, area churches, civic organizations and businesses adopted 450 families and filled their Christmas food baskets with a ham or a turkey and all the trimmings.

“All we ask is that they provide the ingredients for a Christmas dinner,” Lowder said.

Besides a ham or turkey, Christmas baskets also contain vegetables, milk, instant potatoes, bread and a dessert.

“It depends on how much money we get (in donations), but we’d love to have the baskets brimming and be able to include a dessert, too,” she said.

Even with the help from the community, the Danville Salvation Army had to pay for the food to fill an additional 500 baskets last year. And there is a little concern this year that some of the churches and businesses that have adopted more than one family in the past are scaling back on how many families they can adopt and what they can afford.

“The churches are noticing it,” Sawka said, adding that some congregations are feeling the pinch of their own members being out of work. “They can’t adopt them out like they used to.”

When families sign up for a Christmas food basket at the Salvation Army, they also can register at the same time to receive toys from Toys for Tots, which is sponsored by the U.S. Marines.

Toys for Tots offers toys for children up to 13 years old.

Lowder said when families sign up for Toys for Tots, they will receive a slip of paper that will admit them to the St. James Methodist Church gymnasium on Dec. 16, where they will be escorted by a Marine who will help them select age-appropriate toys.

Collection barrels are set up around the city for toy donations, or checks made out to Toys for Tots may be dropped off at the Salvation Army.

Sawka said toys must be donated by Dec. 14 so they can be included in this year’s distribution.

While there are no income guidelines for the Christmas food baskets or Toys for Tots, those who sign up for assistance must bring in proof of income, proof of all household members and all monthly household bills.

“I subtract the bills from the income,” Sawka said about determining eligibility. “I hate to turn someone down because they make good money but pay $300 or $400 a month in prescriptions.”

Coats4kids

Coats4Kids, a new program launched just this year, is helping area children stay warm this winter. So far, the program has been a hit with parents who look through the racks to find just-the-right-size coats for their youngsters.

“All they have to do is fill out a simple form and look through the racks,” Lowder said. “The 45 coats we just got in will be gone by the end of the day.”

Donation barrels have been set up at two dozen local churches and businesses to collect new or gently used children’s coats.

Even though the collection barrels will be taken down Monday, coat donations still will be accepted at the Salvation Army headquarters.

Other help

The annual red kettle drive is the Salvation Army’s main fundraiser, and the money collected during that time is what funds the local organization’s assistance programs for the following year.

Lowder said she set this year’s goal “conservatively” at $85,000, which includes kettle donations as well as mail appeals.

“I’m looking at the reality of things,” she said. “If we go over our goal, that will be great.

“The kettle drive is still our biggest fundraiser. It raises money for the whole year.”

Although Lowder said she hopes to have about 15 kettles around the city, finding volunteer bell ringers to man the kettles has become increasingly more difficult in recent years.

“It’s cold; people don’t want to do it; none of our locations are inside,” Lowder said, listing some of the reasons people don’t volunteer to ring bells.

But thanks to the Internet, people can still donate to the Salvation Army’s kettle drive without leaving their homes by going online.

By logging on to www.salvationarmyusa.org, people can donate to the kettle drive and designate it to the Danville corps. People can also give their airline miles.

Teams, individuals and companies also can host a kettle online and set a fundraising goal for their kettle.

“You can put your kettle on Facebook or e-mail family and friends and ask them to donate,” she said. “You can also do a search for a person’s or company’s kettle.”

One other way people can help make a local child’s Christmas dreams come true is by logging on to http://angel.jcpenney.com. The Salvation Army has teamed up with JCPenney to offer online angel adoptions.

People can select an angel by entering the ZIP code of the community they want to help, selecting the age and gender of their angel and then shopping online at JCPenney’s Web site for the items on the angel’s wish list. JCPenney will ship the angel’s gifts directly to the local Salvation Army corps for delivery by Christmas.

CHRISTMAS HELP

Local families who wish to sign up for a Christmas food basket and/or toys may do so at the Salvation Army, 855 E. Fairchild St. Signups are from 9-11 a.m. and 1-3 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, and from 9 -11 a.m. Friday through Dec. 4. Those signing up must bring a photo ID, proof of all household members (Social Security cards, birth certificates or medical cards), proof of income for the last 30 days and all monthly household bills.

ON THE WEB

To donate to the Salvation Army kettle drive online, go to http://www.salvationarmyusa.org.

To sponsor your own kettle and set a fundraising goal, go to http://give.salvationarmyusa.org.

To shop online for a local child, go to http://angel.jcpenney.com.