(This article first appeared in the December print edition of the Hendersonian.)
Claire Grainger was born at a house in England just four blocks from where William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, lived in the 19th century before taking his Christian mission to the impoverished East End of London.
But it would take decades—and a move to, of all places, the Bahamas—before she and her husband would discover and embrace the Salvation Army.
A few months ago, Majors Norman and Claire Grainger got a call to come out of retirement to serve the poor of the East End of Henderson as part of a temporary assignment.
Much of their energies currently are directed to the annual Red Kettle campaign, recruiting churches, businesses and families to volunteer to ring the bell Mondays through Saturdays at the three Sureway stores here and the Walmart stores in Henderson and Morganfield.
The nickels, dimes and dollars—and sometimes even more generous donations—are crucial to funding the Salvation Army’s mission. A website—www.RegisterToRing.com—enables individuals and groups to sign up.
“Volunteering for two hours could help someone with utilities and rent,” Norman said.
The goal is to raise $75,000 this Christmas season.
“What we make at Christmas, yes, we give out toys and meals,” Norman said. “The rest of the funds take us through the rest of the year. So, it’s vital, the funds we raise at Christmas.”
The Graingers came from working-class beginnings in northern England. Norman was born in the steel town of Middlesbrough, while Claire grew up some 30 miles away in Gateshead, located across the River Tyne from the former coal-mining city of Newcastle.
Norman served five years in the Royal Navy. The Graingers married in 1977, and he worked in pharmaceuticals, then the nuclear fuels industry.
“We were doing pretty good, getting along in life” he said.
Then he saw a newspaper ad for a pharmaceuticals job in the Bahamas. He applied and got the job.
About halfway through his five-year contract, Claire was trying to set up a summer camp for the Anglican church they attended. She ended up serving as camp director for a Salvation Army summer camp.
They became close with a pair of envoys, or lay Salvation Army pastors. “They just loved us unconditionally and gently corrected us when we were un-Biblical,” Claire said. Until then, “We had a religion. We didn’t have a relationship with Jesus.”
The Salvation Army church changed that. “We felt the call for full-time ministry in 1986,” Norman said.
They moved to Chicago to attend Salvation Army seminary, becoming ordained in 1989.
Their first assignment was at a Salvation Army for blind children in Kingston, Jamaica. “That was an incredible ministry,” Norman said.
That was followed by a series of postings in cities around the Midwest, concluding in St. Louis.
They were living in retirement in Frankfort when they were contacted in July about coming to Henderson for a while.
“You never get disconnected from the Salvation Army,” Norman said.
The assignment was for them to serve here through the end of December. They have decided to stay through June 2025.
New corps commanders “will probably be announced in April,” Norman said.
The Salvation Army is guided by “a large (advisory) board of business people, men and women,” he said.
“We only have a small staff” here, Norman said. They include the two majors, a meal person, a second cook, a building maintenance person and a part-time bookkeeper. It used to have a social worker to handle requests for aid from those in need. Claire is filling that role for now, serving in that role three hours a week, which is about all the Salvation Army has the resources to fulfill.
“The funds are tight, but the needs are great,” Norman said. Requests for aid include help paying rent, buying propane or paying utility bills, food, obtaining an identification card—a surprisingly complex task—and more.
“It breaks your heart” to hear the stories of need and not being able to help everybody, Claire said.
The Salvation Army serves a hot lunch six days a week at its Center of Hope at 1213 Washington St., feeding 75 to 80 people.
It collects canned food that help supply the soup kitchen and that is also given to those in need to take home. A food drive for the Salvation Army just began in Henderson County Schools.
It also serves a traditional holiday meal each Thanksgiving, delivering meals to those who are homebound in cooperation with The Gathering Place.
The adjacent thrift store serves as both a revenue source and a source for clothing for those in need.
“It’s a great place,” Norman Grainger said of Henderson. “The volunteers here in this community and this Salvation Army are tremendous.”