Salvation Army in Manhattan on the GMCF Community Hour Show Episode - 249

We share how our 360 Life Center model turns a former store into a hub for emergency aid, street outreach, free clothing, meals, and community gatherings. We ask listeners to help us hit a modest auction goal that keeps rent, utilities, food, and medication assistance local.

• what a 360 life center is and why it differs from big-city salvation armies
• renovations that enable meals, more freezer space, and a larger case manager office
• free clothing closet, no-cook food, tents and sleeping bags for street outreach
• specific donation needs including brand-new underwear, baby clothes, men’s workwear, and winter coats
• Fork It Over online auction details and featured local restaurant items
• how every dollar stays local across Manhattan, Junction City, and parts of Wamego
• partnerships with Shepherd’s Crossing and Catholic Charities to close rent and utility gaps
• Angel Tree sign-ups and Junction City service coordination
• bell ringing timeline, volunteer needs, and how to get involved
• hours, address on Points Avenue, and direct phone number for the director

32auctions.com/360Life2025 — Help us reach $800 today

GMCF

CFAs

Transcript

Welcome & Salvation Army focus

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Philanthropy Today is brought to you by the Greater Manhattan Community Foundation. In this episode, we feature a recently broadcast segment of the GMCF Community Hour, as heard on News Radio KMAN. We are back with the GMCF Community Hour here on News Radio KMAN. And get the opportunity to do this every Monday and talk with some of the nonprofits in the community that are doing a lot of special work for people that are in need. And one organization that is here locally that uh has a national perspective is the Salvation Army. And Carla Johnson is the outreach coordinator. She has been here a number of times, always brings a lot of energy, a lot of fun to the show. Welcome back, Carla.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Thank you, Dave. Good morning.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

It's good to have you here. It looks like you're ready for a Monday night kickoff.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

Yes, Go Chiefs.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

Go Chiefs, big Chiefs fan. Hand painted shirt. I like that. I like that. I'm going to have you pull that microphone a little closer to you if you don't mind. There we go. Awesome. Well, let's talk about the Salvation Army.

What a 360 Life Center means

SPEAKER_00 1:05

There's been a lot of changes with the Salvation Army over the last few years. And here in Manhattan, it's not the same, not what it used to be.

SPEAKER_01 1:15

Correct. We are now a 360 life center, and we're unique in that we're not the same as other salvation armies. We don't have a major, we do not get the same funding as the salvation armies in big cities. We pretty much have to secure our own funding for our emergency services and our street outreach that we provide.

SPEAKER_00 1:42

And what is it about the 360 Life Center that well, well, why don't you just kind of give us an idea of what that does and what it is?

SPEAKER_01 1:53

We are a local service unit that meets a community's spiritual, physical, emotional, and mental needs without discrimination in the name of Jesus Christ.

Renovations and free clothing closet

SPEAKER_01 2:06

We provide emergency assistance such as financial counseling, classes for parents, early childhood skills, tutoring. We still have a closed closet upstairs. We just give it away for free. We don't sell it. We are in the middle of a huge renovation, so we're not taking donations at this time, but we will be soon.

Street outreach and no-cook food

SPEAKER_01 2:35

We have a Operation Street Outreach where we help the homeless population of Manhattan with tents, sleeping bags, um, blankets when it was so hot this summer. We had a cooler out back where we provided um water and Gatorade. And we have um some food in the front that you don't need to heat or cook, such as soup that you know you just tear open the lid and you can just eat it right out of the can.

Meals, gatherings, and community use

SPEAKER_01 3:10

We once we get done with the renovation, we will provide um meals Tuesday through Friday. Usually a hot meal.

SPEAKER_00 3:21

Maybe it might just be a this sounds like a big project, Carla.

SPEAKER_01 3:24

Yes. Yeah, we do a lot. We do a lot for the community. Um, we've had weddings and baby showers in our building also.

SPEAKER_00 3:35

Okay. Yeah, and then we have that seems outside of what I would have expected to hear from you today.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

Uh the director is a uh ordained pastor, and um every Saturday night we have a gathering, a non-denominational church service at six o'clock. There's usually a separate children's service, and then we all come back together and have a community meal afterwards.

SPEAKER_00 4:01

Nice, nice. And and just for the sake of purpose of uh folks that are maybe unfamiliar with the facility, you're still on Points

Facility changes and donated meats

SPEAKER_00 4:11

Avenue.

SPEAKER_01 4:11

Correct. 308 and 310 Points Avenue.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

It looks different than what it used to be when you know you had the store.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

Yes, we've had the uh dressing rooms removed, the our um case manager, her office is twice as big as what it used to be. And the director, her office is back where the garage used to be. That used to be just stuffed full of junk. And so she has a lot more room to work with, and we have more freezers because we have somebody that donates a lot of uh bison meat to us really and venison, yes, that we hadn't thought about uh either of those being donated, but I bet that that's uh that's handy.

What donations are most needed

SPEAKER_00 5:03

Um since you don't have the store anymore and you know you have clothing that you're able to help people out with, what are some of the things that you accept as far as donations there to give to people in need?

SPEAKER_01 5:19

We are always in need of brand new underwear, any size.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

You don't between underwear and socks. I hear that as a as as a as a general theme.

SPEAKER_01 5:31

We really don't need socks because we get the bombus socks. Oh, do you? Yes, they're all they're only black, but we get I don't think anybody cares. Yeah, we get cases of the bombas socks.

SPEAKER_00 5:44

Really? Yes, that's all donated to you.

SPEAKER_01 5:47

Yeah, I mean we don't that's their nature. Yeah, we don't get a lot of children's sizes, okay, but we get a lot of socks. So socks are kind of something we really don't need, but underwear we need, um baby clothes are always great because they grow so fast.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

They do.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

Yeah, um, but I mean almost any clothes we would take. We tend to not have as much clothing for men. Um, work clothes. We're coming up on the cold time of the year, so we need coats.

SPEAKER_00 6:22

Okay. All right. And do you does one just make those drop those by your life center?

SPEAKER_01 6:29

Yes. Probably in a week or two, we would start taking donations again full time.

SPEAKER_00 6:34

You've got the renovations going on, so you got your hands full there. Okay, good to know.

Online auction: Fork It Over

SPEAKER_00 6:39

Well, you have an event coming up, an online auction. Fork it over first. Salvation Army is what it's called.

SPEAKER_01 6:46

Fork it over for Salvation Army.

SPEAKER_00 6:48

For Salvation Army.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 6:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 6:50

Correct. It actually started the day of Purple Power Play. We were gonna have a computer set up so people could look at what our items were. The internet just was not uh cooperating with this. The website is uh HTTPS slash slash www32auctions.com slash 360 Life 2025. Okay. And we have a number of wonderful items there. This is a free auction site, so everything starts at a dollar and you just bid up. Uh we have La Fiesta, Nico's, Qdoba, noodles, AJ's. The highest priced item would be a gift bundle from Vista worth $130, 10 hamburgers, 10 attention, 10 French fries, and a half a sheet cake from Baskin Robbins.

SPEAKER_00 7:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

Um Longhorn Steakhouse has dinner for two that could be up to $75. Um, Pizza Ranch, Hawaiian Brothers, Umi's, Chin's, El Sol, you know, just quite a few. Either buy one, get one free, something else free, Carlos O'Kelly's gift, you know, physical gift certificates or a gift card is on that website.

SPEAKER_00 8:21

32 auctions, right?

SPEAKER_01 8:23

32 auctions.com slash 360 life 2025.

SPEAKER_00 8:30

Okay. It's 32 auctions plural.

SPEAKER_01 8:33

Dot com. Yeah, it's all together.

SPEAKER_00 8:36

Good. And you have that on your Facebook page?

SPEAKER_01 8:38

Uh yes, we do.

SPEAKER_00 8:39

Okay.

Angel Tree and Junction City support

SPEAKER_00 8:40

Good to know.

SPEAKER_01 8:41

And we are trying to raise at least $800.

SPEAKER_00 8:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

And we're at like 32 right now.

SPEAKER_00 8:48

$32. Yes. Got some work to do.

SPEAKER_01 8:51

Definitely have some work to do.

SPEAKER_00 8:52

Okay. All right. Well, that what that shows is that Dave hasn't been there yet.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

Uh, just something else I wanted to mention. We are taking names for Angel Tree right now. And I believe it's either next week or the week after we will do be doing Angel Tree in Junction City.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

Really? Do you serve Junction City? Does it there's not a Salvation Army there?

SPEAKER_01 9:17

No, there's not one there. So, yes, we serve Junction City.

SPEAKER_00 9:20

Okay. That's good to know too. Yes. So we have a lot of Junction City friends that love to give, and and it's good to know that do they have a location at all for distribution of anything?

SPEAKER_01 9:30

There is a uh worker in Junction City. Her name's Darlisa. And if they need to get a hold of her, they just call our office.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

Okay. So you got this online auction. You have a goal of $800, which I mean, our listeners right now could probably just fill that up. 32auctions.com 360 Life 2025.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 9:51

Okay. So let's increase that from $32 up before we get to the end of the show today. All right. All right, listeners, get active here. But keep listening to the show. So what will you do with these funds?

Where funds go: local emergency aid

SPEAKER_01 10:03

These funds will stay local in the Junction City, Manhattan, even some Walmigo area, to help with our emergency services, help pay rent, utilities. If somebody needs help paying for medication, um occasionally we do gas vouchers if someone is going to a job interview or a medical appointment. They have to provide um actual notification or, you know, some document. That's what it's for. But that's what we use this money for.

SPEAKER_00 10:37

Okay. All right. Well, there's uh a lot of work to be done because there's a great need. And, you know, we have we're fortunate that we have a number of organizations that are helping those that are in the situation where they need some assistance.

SPEAKER_01 10:54

Correct. And we've been if somebody needs, you know, uh rent assistance, we work in tandem with Shepherd's Crossing and Catholic charities here in Riley County. We can each pool our money together to help pay a certain amount. But, you know, some people will call us that have a $900

Partnering to cover rent and utilities

SPEAKER_01 11:15

electric bill or gas bill. And we're like, we can help with the the last hundred. And that just doesn't go very far. Right.

SPEAKER_00 11:23

Yeah. Well, we have a lot of people that fall in those cracks. And uh here's an opportunity for for folks to get involved. You know, we we talked about this offline. It's not on our subjects, but the bell ringing season is coming. We're a couple of weeks or a couple of months away from that. When do you when when do you start doing the bell ringing? And if you've never seen Carla bell ring before, she's uh she's the one that sparkles at the entrance or wherever she's going to be, because I've seen you everywhere in sequence.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

Yes. Um traditionally it starts the day after Thanksgiving. Okay. With Walmart, anyway. They usually won't let anybody start there until the day after Thanksgiving. I know the last couple of years, I've started 10 days or so before that at Hobby Lobby. That's my favorite place to be. And I've had people tell me they they turn in the parking lot down by Chick-fil-A. And yes, they can see the the sequins on my UG boots from the beginning of the parking lot as well.

SPEAKER_00 12:28

And this year you don't have the

Bell ringing season and volunteers

SPEAKER_00 12:29

extra boot accessory because you had a little uh yeah, I had a walking boot on my sore foot last year.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

So that'll be nice to not have that. Um, we might be able to start two weeks before that this year, trying to, you know, make our goals beat our goal from last year. So it'll be interesting. And I know the last couple of years it was warm enough when I started, I could be outside in a t-shirt and shorts, which is always better than in you know, freezing snow.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

Well, I'll um I'll sign up for at least one session to to bell ring somewhere. Yeah, I don't want to take your Hobby Lobby spot away from you, but uh we'll figure that out because I've done that before and I've always enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

I would be happy to do that.

SPEAKER_00 13:16

And you always take volunteers to help.

SPEAKER_01 13:17

Yes, yes. Once once we've got that open, we'll um I'd love to come back and talk to you about that also.

SPEAKER_00 13:24

Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 13:24

But yeah, we could always work in tandem somewhere too.

SPEAKER_00 13:27

Okay. That would be fun. That'd be fun for a lot of people. Yeah. Not just you and me. Anything else you want to touch base on in the work of Salvation Army here locally?

SPEAKER_01 13:36

Our phone number of the director is 785-210-5917. And we're at 310 points. We are the office, once it's open, is Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. And then our uh Saturday hours, the uh church service usually starts at 6, and the meal is 7, 715. Depends

Hours, services, and contact info

SPEAKER_01 14:05

on how long she talks.

SPEAKER_00 14:08

I've been accused of that.

SPEAKER_01 14:09

Yeah, but and like I said, she does weddings, she does funerals, she does counseling. We've had baby showers there, birthday parties. I had my my birthday there uh a couple years ago. We did a uh a paint, paint, uh, we couldn't have any alcohol, but we did a paint and pop.

SPEAKER_00 14:30

Karna Johnson is her name. She's the outreach coordinator for Salvation Army. You can always find out more uh about them. And and once the renovations are done, there's uh there's a place for you to go check out and help in a number of different ways. Uh Jane is going to be joining us here in the next segment, talking about some different updates, uh, number of activities that are happening in the community. This is the GMCF Community Hour on News Radio KMAN.