TRIAD – The familiar, seasonal red kettles of the Salvation Army are receiving a modern makeover this year.

While paper money and change donations traditionally filled the buckets, accompanied by bell ringers at various retail locations, the organization revealed a kettle with an attached credit card machine at its annual Piedmont Red Kettle Kick-Off on Friday.

“A lot of people don’t carry cash anymore. Especially with the younger generation, many people only carry debit cards,” said Capt. Tony Perez of the High Point branch at the event. “This new method makes it easy to make a difference.”

The credit card machine was demonstrated for guests at the kickoff event, held at the Shoppes at Friendly Center in Greensboro. The machine accepts credit and debit cards and prints a receipt for the donor once the transaction is complete. Four kettle locations in High Point offer the credit card feature, including the Super Wal-Mart stores on N. Main and S. Main streets.

The average cash donation is about $2, where as the average credit or debit card donation is about $15, Perez added.

In an especially trying year for non-profit organizations that are seeing increased needs from members of the community, Maj. Terry Israel of the Winston-Salem branch said the credit card machines were needed more than ever this year to allow for increased donations.

“We’ve tried to come up with a variety of ways for people to give as creatively and conveniently as possible,” Israel said.

The organization also revealed statistics displaying greater needs in the community this holiday season in areas of rent, utility and food assistance. Maj. Paul Egan from the Greensboro office said the organization had experienced a 47 percent increase in Christmas assistance applications. He said there also is a significant increase in the number of people applying for assistance for the first time.

“We ask for donations unabashedly because we believe in the needs and know the need is up this year,” Israel said. “Come Dec. 25, we believe we’re going to have raised every penny we need to serve every person we need to serve.”

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