Jim Tennant suffered a small setback in his efforts to do something good for the community.
The Save-On-Foods manager, who has been camped on the roof of his store at the Village Green Centre since Sept. 19 to raise money and food for the Salvation Army Food Bank, was the victim of crime Tuesday.
Somebody stole his Salvation Army kettle where he was accepting financial donations.
“It kind of sucked, but somebody cut the cord,” said a disappointed Tennant Wednesday morning.
“I don’t even know when it happened. I didn’t hear anything. We even had the Salvation Army bells on the kettle and I didn’t hear anything. It was a nice, clean cut on the rope and it’s gone.”
The kettle hangs from a rope and Tennant said he would pull up the kettle at around 5 or 6 p.m. each day to empty it. He ate dinner a little later than usual Tuesday and, after dinner, when he went to pull up the kettle, all he got was the rope.
“I never wanted it hanging over the end with too much money, so I’m guessing there was maybe $100 in it,” he said. “Losing the kettle and bells from the Salvation Army, along with the money for the food bank, it’s all bad.”
However, only Wednesday’s rain was dampening Tennant’s spirits.
While the theft hurt, he hopes something positive comes out of it.
“I hope whoever did it wakes up this morning, and maybe it’ll be a turning point in their life,” said Tennant. “I hope they realize they stole from the food bank and from somebody trying to do something good in their community and, who knows, maybe they’ll turn their lives around and go, ‘You know what? I don’t want to live like that anymore’ and make a change in their life.
I have to try and hope for something positive to come out of it.”
Something positive did come later Wednesday from the Vernon Rotary Club, which donated $1,000 after hearing the kettle had been taken.
“That was awesome,” said Tennant. “Jack (Peters) brought it up at their meeting and everybody wanted to get on board to help out.”
Tennant hopes to stay on the roof long enough to raise 25,000 pounds of food. As of noon Thursday, he was at 12,000 pounds.
