Salvation Army

Lauren Anderson, 17, stood waiting outside Wal-Mart at 9 a.m. on a recent Saturday, but she had not come for an early-morning bargain. Instead of spending money, she was at the department store to collect money as a red kettle bell ringer for the Salvation Army. Anderson, president of the Chichester High School Interact Club, was joined outside the store by club members Ashley Lane, 15; Kim Sliben, 15; and Liz Barrar, 17, who volunteered to help with the fund-raiser. "When I looked at the clock this morning and it read 8:30 a.m., at first I didn't want to get up, but I did" Barrar said.

Thanksgiving brings the standard sweet memories of family, turkey and football, but also the annual dilemma of where our family will spend the day. Our Thanksgiving tradition has been to volunteer our time to others, though we typically find soup kitchens overflowing with more volunteers than people in need. We began our tradition five years ago with our friends the Ditarantos. At the time, our combined families of four adults and five kids ranging in age from 5 to 11 treaded lightly into the world of volunteerism by playing bingo with residents of a nursing home.

When the military representative arrived at the doorstep of her Levittown home at 9 a.m., Keisha Johnson knew something had gone wrong. His face was warm but serious. He carried a letter. "I shook my head and said, 'No, no,'" Williams said yesterday, recalling the Saturday morning encounter. Army officials said Spec. Maurice Johnson, 21, died in Iraq on Saturday after the car he was riding in was struck by a bomb. His body was flown to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Monday.

Helen Carrow Kulp, 82, of Haddonfield, who volunteered with many area charitable organizations and was the last local relative of the Navy commander for whom Admiral Wilson Boulevard is named, died of pancreatic cancer Sept. 22 at the Evergreens, a continuing care community in Moorestown. When the last strip club was demolished on Admiral Wilson Boulevard in 2000, Mrs. Kulp proclaimed herself to be ecstatic. "I'm so happy I have lived this long to see it actually happen," Mrs. Kulp said in an interview.

William Tomar, 86, a prominent trial lawyer from Cherry Hill who stayed close to his South Jersey roots, died Wednesday at an assisted-living facility in Potomac, Md. Mr. Tomar, who had been senior partner of the former Tomar, O'Brien, Kaplan, Jacoby & Graziano, served on the boards of several institutions, including Cooper Hospital-University Medical Center in Camden, the Haddonfield Symphony, and local chapters of the Boy Scouts of America, American...

If police are correct, Anthony R. Campbell certainly had a lot of serious grudges. And court records indicate that the 33-year-old West Chester resident may have vented his anger illegally. Campbell now faces more than 75 charges, including making terroristic threats, criminal use of a communications facility, and harassment - offenses that could result in a prison term of more than 300 years. In the criminal complaint, police describe a series of events for which they believe Campbell was responsible: A bomb threat made by an anonymous caller to West Chester District Court at 8:50 a.m. on July 2 that resulted in the evacuation of the building.

Residents and staff of a West Philadelphia transitional shelter for homeless families are fighting to save it after learning the city plans to shut it down for cost reasons. Staff members from Faith House, a shelter operated by the Salvation Army, met yesterday with City Councilwoman Jannie L. Blackwell to see whether they could work out a way keep the transitional apartments open. City officials decided to close the shelter two weeks ago after concluding that it was costing too much to operate.

About 100 residents of a West Philadelphia transitional shelter for women and families are scrambling to find new housing after city officials decided last week to stop funding the program. The Salvation Army's Faith House shelter in the 4400 block of Walnut Street is scheduled to phase out its services between June 30 and Sept. 30. The transitional apartments, largely targeted for families with mental and physical health problems, were deemed too expensive to operate, said Robert Hess, the city's director of adult services.

"Father, in the name of Jesus," Efrain Cotto prayed Wednesday, minutes before the first seating of a pre-Thanksgiving dinner for the homeless and hungry at the Salvation Army headquarters in North Philadelphia. "We need your help. We can't do this alone. " Besides Jesus, Mr. Cotto, volunteer coordinator for the Salvation Army and a local pastor, could have used a couple of dozen more volunteers. Here it was 5:15 p.m. and he had a crowd of more than 100 hungry people packed into the chapel and 20 or so more in the hallway and not enough volunteers to serve them food.

The closet was her sanctuary, a place where it was always Sept. 10 and she was forever Mrs. James Berger. She could close the door, sit on the soft carpet, and lean into her husband's suits and shirts, as though the sleeves could hold her as she cried or prayed or begged for the hurt to stop. But the closet was holding Suzanne Berger back. It was filled with reminders of what might have been, what should have been, what was. Two weeks ago, Suzanne was rooting around for a duffle bag and found one tucked in a corner of her husband's walk-in closet.