from staff reports



What do you have in your wallet? Many people don’t know that they have something in their wallet that can help thousands this Christmas — unused gift cards.

Each year in the United States billions of dollars go unspent on gift cards. Most gift card purchases leave a portion of a card’s value unused. Eventually these cards with unspent value are often discarded, and sometimes cards are never used at all.

The Salvation Army will begin accepting unused gift cards online this year for the first time. People with leftover gift cards can log onto www.tsa-donatemycard.com or www.salvationarmyalm.org to donate any remaining balance. The Salvation Army will turn that unused balance into cash to help struggling families. They have developed an online system to redeem the unspent portion of gift cards from any retail store into cash to support their programs for the poor.

The gift card market is expected to be more than $100 billion dollars in 2008 and approximately 10 percent of this total value is expected to go unspent, the Salvation Army reported. That’s $10 billion sitting around in wallets, purses and dresser drawers that can be put to use to help struggling families at Christmas and throughout the year.

“We are facing a big challenge to meet all the needs this Christmas,” said Major John R. Jones, Divisional Commander for The Salvation Army in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi. “We expect to provide toys and food to more than 25,000 families in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi this Christmas and that requires a lot of money.  We hope this new ability to accept gift cards online will help provide the additional funds we need to help all of those in need.”

For more information visit onto www.salvationarmyalm.org.