KOLOA — The Hanapepe Salvation Army Corps must have been on Santa’s early Christmas list this year because a gold coin worth around $1,200 was anonymously dropped at the Koloa Big Save kettle Tuesday evening. Every year a mysterious donor
KOLOA — The Hanapepe Salvation Army Corps must have been on Santa’s early Christmas list this year because a gold coin worth around $1,200 was anonymously dropped at the Koloa Big Save kettle Tuesday evening.
Every year a mysterious donor deposits gold coins at random Salvation Army kettle locations across the nation, but Lt. Sarah Smuda — the officer in charge of Koloa to Kekaha — never suspected one would end up in hers.
“This is just such a bizarre thing,” Smuda said Thursday, adding that she is certain this is the first time it has occurred in the 50th state.
More like an urban legend to Kaua‘i’s Salvation Army employees — the secret gifter has also reportedly struck locations including Oklahoma City and Denver this year — the gold coins are “always a running joke.”
“Every Salvation Army knows the story of the gold coin,” she said.
But Smuda was in for a huge surprise when a zip lock bag with a shiny Krugerrand coin was discovered in one of their own collection kettles at the end of the night.
“You hear about it but don’t really expect it to happen,” she said.
Already surpassing their goal of $25,000 last week — which is above last year’s goal of $23,000 — Smuda said she thinks Hanapepe Corps will beat last year by at least $7,000 at the end of Thursday.
“It’s amazing … especially because of the current state of the economy,” she said, adding that their bell ringing fundraiser began a week earlier this year due to the loss of a government grant which used to provide funding for the operation of their soup kitchen.
After raising about $1,000 a day, they have already received around a tenth of next year’s budget, she said. The funds will be used for year-long programs such as the soup kitchen, food pantry and clothing distribution.
For her first year as an officer, the youngest commanding leader in the territory said it has been an amazing Christmas.
“It’s a crazy thing” and “pretty cool” that this happened during my inaugural holiday season, Smuda said.
• Coco Zickos, business and environmental writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 251) or czickos@kauaipubco.com.
