The Salvation Army Service Center at Hayes has been a busy place recently, director Darlene M. Lee said Monday.

The center will assist approximately 180 families with various Christmas holiday relief, Lee said. “The community has been most generous,” Lee said of the army’s efforts to collect for the Toys for Tots and Angel Tree (clothing and other gifts for youngsters through teens) campaigns, as well as other efforts to provide meals for a number of families and a separate initiative to have holiday food and small gifts ready for several dozen senior citizens.

While all of these efforts are underway at the Hayes center, where toy and food pickups were scheduled this week by screened applicants, Lee said another very visible effort is the annual red kettles placed at a number of retail outlets in the community. There, bell ringers are spreading holiday cheer and collecting donations that will be used to support the army’s efforts in 2013.

Because of a lack of bell ringers, Lee said no kettle station was set up in Mathews this year—but she hopes that situation will change by next Christmas. In Gloucester, she estimated that 80 percent of the shifts were covered this season, with volunteers ringing bells from the day after Thanksgiving until Christmas Eve, except on Sundays.

In Gloucester, the volunteer bell program has been boosted by major efforts by Newington Baptist, Abingdon Episcopal and Bellamy United Methodist churches to get their congregants to participate, Lee said. It would be nice if one or more Mathews churches step forward to supply bell ringers next Christmas season, she added.

Without providing specific amounts, Lee said that the kettles have brought in almost as much money as in recent years. She said the sluggish economy has hurt, but that many people passing by the kettles drop in coins and bills.

There has been some confusion in the community recently about the way the center operates, Lee said. The Hayes center operates separately from the army’s Peninsula Command in Hampton. Lee said the Hayes center does not offer many of the services of the larger army command, such as child care, gymnasium and chapel services.

However, Lee said the local center does operate a year-round food pantry, which receives good support from people bringing in donations of canned goods. In addition, the center offers some emergency relief services and fuel assistance.

Other donations, such as furniture and household items, are either used to assist certain clients in need, Lee said, or are offered for sale at monthly indoor yard sales at the center which generate a small amount of funds.

Looking to the new year, Lee said the local center plans to offer a number of instructional sessions to benefit its clients. For example, financial planning classes are being organized, she said, along with others in life skills and family management.

Lee said that several longtime Salvation Army Advisory Council members have resigned in recent months. All organizations experience turnover of its leadership at different times, Lee said, and the local council is seeking interested persons to volunteer to serve. For more information, call Lee at 642-3960.

Donations can be dropped off at the local center at 7059 Linda Circle, Hayes, Lee said, or interested persons can mail in a check in response to the center’s ongoing mail solicitation campaign—which Lee said has been well supported.

In a separate announcement, Lee said that Wallease Burnell of Newport News recently joined the staff as lead social worker. Lee and Burnell are the only two paid employees at the Hayes center at this time.

Burnell previously served 2 years in the U.S. Army, with her highest rank 1st Sergeant.