Salvation Army finds gold coin in Bigfork bucket

The Salvation Army has struck gold again.

Lt. Kabrina “KB” Hall found an American Buffalo gold coin on Friday as she was counting the red-kettle donations from the Harvest Foods collection site in Bigfork.

“I’ve never done anything like this before,” said Hall. Kalispell is Hall’s first appointment with the Salva-tion Army, and this is the first gold coin she has found.

While the gold coin is a first for Hall, it’s not the first time such generosity has turned up locally in the red kettles. Last year two gold coins showed up during the annual collection. Maj. Steve Svenson found a Liberty Head Double Eagle gold coin in the kettle at the Columbia Falls Smith’s store last December — the first he’d seen in the 32 Christmas seasons he had worked for the Salvation Army. Less than a week later he found a Standing Liberty gold piece in the kettle at Bigfork Harvest Foods. The combined total of those two coins was about $2,140.

Hall said she is looking forward to selling the coin and bumping up the Salvation Army’s annual collection total.

“People have been very generous,” Hall said. “The Christmas kettles are up 5 percent compared to last year.”