ELYRIA — Putting money into a Salvation Army kettle outside a grocery store is so last century.

A new and improved way to ensure children have a very merry Christmas this year is available online at www.onlineredkettle.org where you can donate to any Salvation Army in the country or create your own virtual red kettle and solicit donations from friends and co-workers through e-mail.

The Salvation Army of both Elyria and Lorain joined forces under their umbrella organization, the Lorain County Advisory Board, to kick off the kettle season online earlier this week by donating $3,100 to its own virtual kettle, which is really just a Web page users can create at the Web site with a link that allows people to donate to them.

Contributions came from individual members of the Advisory Board, as well as through fundraising efforts by the members themselves.

“It was a way of getting the ball rolling and challenging the community to participate,” said Elyria Salvation Army Capt. Paul Pelletier. “This is something different that people can do and we wanted to make them more aware of it.”

The online method has been around for a few years now, but those in charge have been tweaking it to make it more user friendly, said Pelletier. Last year, the Advisory Board raised more than $8,000 online alone.

Both the Elyria and Lorain branches kick off the physical kettle campaign today.

Money dropped into the Salvation Army’s red kettles, both virtual and in person, doesn’t just feed thousands of families and buy toys for children during the holidays, it also helps impoverished families year-round.

The Salvation Army nationally hopes to raise $2 million online this year.

Contact Adam Wright at 329-7155 or awright@chroniclet.com.

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