The Salvation Army’s national leadership said it has never received a kettle donation as generous as the $500,000 check that was given over the weekend in Rosemount by donors who want to remain anonymous. The charities’ Twin Cities division revealed the donation on Monday, saying the check was placed Saturday into one of its signature red kettles at the Cub Foods on County Road 42, just east of Shannon Parkway. Not only was it the largest single such gift the organization has received in the Twin Cities, but it also blew the bells off the previous record of $25,000. The couple asked to remain anonymous but told the Salvation Army they made the gift in hopes of encouraging others to give generously. “This couple has supported the Army before with large checks in kettles, but never anything close to this level.” 
 
 Borgen said the bell ringers at the store, Rosemount firefighters, were oblivious to the big gift. The couple said they made the gift in hopes of encouraging others to also stretch their generosity and to honor one of their fathers, who served in the trenches in World War I and was grateful to the Salvation Army “doughnut lassies” who brought soldiers free coffee and doughnuts. The donors told the Salvation Army they had relied on discarded food from a local grocery store as a young couple and could now afford to help others. “You get to a point in life where it’s time to take care of others, the way you were taken care of,” the donors said in a statement issued through the charity. Maj. Jeff Strickler, the Salvation Army’s commander for the Twin Cities, said, “We are simply stunned and honored to have received such a generous gift. This is a true blessing, and it could not come at a better time for the Salvation Army and the people we serve.” 
 
 The $500,000 donation was confirmed Tuesday by the charity’s national headquarters in suburban Washington, D.C., as the largest single kettle donation ever anywhere in the country. The gift put a charge into the Twin Cities Salvation Army’s goal of raising $11.6 million during its Christmas campaign.
– An anonymous couple in Minneapolis just raised the bar in a big way for all those dropping spare change into Salvation Army kettles. They quietly dropped in a check for $500,000 outside a Cub Foods store, reports the Pioneer Press. "The check did clear and was deposited in the bank,” a Salvation Army spokeswoman tells Reuters. “They feel very strongly about the gift being anonymous.” It shatters the previous record for a local kettle donation of $25,000, notes the Minneapolis Star Tribune. No word yet on whether it's a national record as well. “You get to a point in life where it’s time to take care of others, the way you were taken care of,” explain the donors in a statement released by the charity. In it, they spoke of relying on discarded grocery store food in their younger days. Also, one of the pair's fathers served in World War I and spoke fondly of the Salvation Army's delivery of coffee and doughnuts to the troops. "We are simply stunned and honored to have received such a generous gift," says Maj. Jeff Strickler, the charity's commander in the Twin Cities. (A nonprofit for the blind got a surprise $125 million gift from a recluse.)