Posted at: 12/24/2009 7:32 PM
Updated at: 12/24/2009 7:33 PM
By: Sarah Swistak

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Final Push for Red Kettles

(ABC 6 NEWS) -- Salvation Army kettle volunteers were crunching Thursday to stuff their kettles with enough money to reach this year's goal of a quarter million dollars on, what is, the last day of ringing.
 
The Rochester Salvation Army is breaking all sorts of records this year with their red kettles.
 
"This community is so generous, and we get amazed every year," said Jeff Urban of the Rochester Salvation Army.
 
They've added 1,000 more volunteer hours to last year's record-setting number of 46-hundred.
 
"We've got a lot of people all over the place pulling out all the stops to help bring in every dollar we can," said Urban.
 
Among them, Mr. and Mrs. Claus who came out to ring.
 
"Salvation Army does so much good for everybody," said Santa Claus.
"If you get out there and ring, its such a good feeling," said Mrs. Claus.
 
As of Thursday morning, they smashed another record too; last year's fundraising total of $233,000.  And they're just shy of reaching this year's goal of $250,000.
 
"We got really close to our goal, or maybe started to exceed it, so this could be just the frosting on the cake hopefully,” said Urban.
 
Helping them reach that mark is Think Bank, and a handful of anonymous donors who have pledged a 13-thousand-dollar donation match.
 
"Stepping forward at this time is critical. It'll encourage other people instead of giving $1 to give $5. Instead of giving $50 to give $100. That really encourages folks, so they upped their donations, and it's matched on top of that, so it's a win-win,” said Urban.
 
As for Mrs. Claus and her rosy-cheeked husband, there's no need to worry.
 
"We're heading to get the sleigh and the reindeer all ready to go," said Mrs. Claus.
    
This year's red kettle drive ended at 5 p.m. Thursday.