Adra Hallford

Adra Hallford, director of development at The Salvation Army of Texarkana, describes "education" as the first opportunity that a child has to participate in their own success.

The success, therefore, of the organization's program to help underprivileged children receive all the necessary school supplies each year is of vital importance.

"The Salvation Army is once again putting together a program to help underprivileged students get their school supplies," Hallford said.
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"The money is raised every spring at our annual Stone Soup Luncheon fund-raiser, a portion of which is set aside for the school supply program," Hallford said."This year we'd like to expand the program somewhat by asking for public support in distributing school supplies to needy children."

Hallford said anyone who wishes may donate either school supplies or donations for school supplies through The Refuge in College Hill and The Center of Hope at 316 Hazel St., Texarkana, Ark. Hallford said both locations are centers of assistance where social services are offered.The Refuge is a community center where The Salvation Army is running programs for underprivileged children, and The Center of Hope is a transitional shelter for women, children and families.

"The public can purchase school supplies and drop them off at either The Refuge or The Center of Hope, or donate them directly to The Salvation Army offices at 400 E. Fourth St., Texarkana, Ark.," Hallford said."Either way we'll make sure the donations or school supplies go to needy school children in our community."

Hallford said the program focuses on basic school supplies, such as paper, pens, crayons, markers, notebooks, erasers, colored pencils, etc.

"I have seen these children get this stuff and it's very rewarding," Hallford said.

"They've been tremendous supporters of The Salvation Army over the years," said Adra Hallford, director of development for the Army.

The Salvation Army set its sights high with the Building Hope campaign.

"The Building Hope campaign began several years ago in order to build and renovate Salvation Army buildings and programs.We've raised $2.3 million and we're really excited that we've reached our goal," Hallford said.

The Salvation Army has done good things with the money raised.

"We've done several things, including building the Center of Hope building, which is our emergency shelter for women," Hallford said.

The shelter provides transitional housing for children, women and families.

"We also moved the thrift store to a more successful location.We've actually increased our sales in that location 53 percent in the last year," Hallford said.

"Very importantly, part of the funding is also earmarked for programs and operations to make sure that not only are we providing shelter and meals but we are also providing appropriate support services.Those support services are what makes the Salvation Army programs successful.It's a way of giving a hand up, rather than a hand out," Hallford said.

"The Refuge was looking at closing its doors permanently because of lack of funding," said Adra Hallford, director of development for The Salvation Army.
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We think we can positively impact their lives by giving them that safe positive place," Hallford said.

At this point, The Salvation Army is committed to keeping The Refuge open throughout the summer.

"We're running a day camp for 75 children.Fifty of those slots will be full scholarship, and we've reserved 25 slots for working parents with children who need to be dropped off as early as 7 a.m. and picked up as late at 6 p.m.," Hallford said.

The cost for those slots will be $20 a week.The summer program is for children in kindergarten through sixth grade.

"We are really looking at these children as whole people with physical, spiritual and emotional needs.We want to support them with character-building programs, educational support and cultural enrichment," Hallford said.

The Refuge will continue to offer evening and weekend programs for older children.

There will be some changes evident at The Refuge, including more paid staff.

"We are determined to mitigate all of the risk factors that are associated with supervising children.We will be doing background checks and screening volunteers very carefully," Hallford said.

She also expects that with the support of The Salvation Army, The Refuge could see its financial problems alleviated.

"The community itself doesn't have the resources to support a program like this, so you have to look for outside funding sources, apply for foundational and government grants, and do fund-raising in the community, which requires leadership and vision.

"And on top of that, you have to have the organizational backing," Hallford said.

She gives credit to the past directors of The Refuge for keeping its doors open as long as they did.

"The people ran it with love and care because they care about the community.We're not taking anything away from what they've accomplished there.They got it started and got it up and running with almost nothing other than vision," Hallford said.

Proceeds raised from the Stone Soup luncheon help the local Salvation Army provide support services by buying school supplies and camp experiences for needy children and funding Christmas programs, disaster relief, shelter for the homeless and crisis intervention services that provide rent, utilities and food to the needy, said Adra Hallford, director of development for The Salvation Army.

Members of the public are invited to attend the luncheon and visit The Salvation Army to witness some of the programs in action, Hallford said.

For more information contact Adra Hallford of the Salvation Army at (870) 774-2701 or Shawn Martin of Curves at (870) 216-2878.