Salvation Army Elgin Corps honors community partners for help with holiday campaign

After a holiday season where the Salvation Army Elgin Corps worked to provide a merrier Christmas for more than 500 families, the organization held a partner recognition breakfast Thursday to honor the volunteers and sponsors who helped make it happen.

Through its annual Red Kettle campaign, the Elgin Corps raised $212,540. The funding goes to programming throughout the year, in addition to helping local families during the holidays.

More than 500 families with 1,120 children received over 3,000 toys and 1,200 articles of clothing at Christmas through programs like Angel Tree and Adopt a Family.

It was the first holiday season for the Elgin Corps’ new commanders, Lts. Scott and Allison Rodriguez.

Allison Rodriguez described being able to help so many families as “a beautiful thing.”

“We start receiving these applications in October, and we receive hundreds of names, and they’re just names until distribution day,” she said. “Then those names get faces, and those faces become friends. It’s just such a privilege.”

She thanked the over 100 people in attendance for their invaluable support.

“The Salvation Army is really just the middleman, a conduit for things that you do as a community,” Rodriguez said.

The event at Elgin Community College honored local service organizations, schools, businesses and other volunteers for their contributions to the organization. The Elgin Corps also serves Carpentersville, East and West Dundee, South Elgin and Streamwood.

Advantax Corporate Property Tax Solutions won the Karas Restaurant Group Community Christmas Impact award for the organization that made the most impact on the Elgin Corps’ fundraising campaign.

Bob Karas and the restaurant group started sponsoring the award this year after winning it the last two years.

Jacobs High School won the high school challenge and was awarded $5,000 from Otto Engineering for its efforts. Otto Chairman Tom Roeser annually rewards the winner to help promote philanthropy among young people.

Shales McNutt Construction raised the most money in the Virtual Kettle program, while the Elgin Brass Band won the group bell-ringing award. The Elgin Breakfast Rotary Club was honored for the sixth straight year for raising the most money in the service club challenge.