Trina Crawford, Our choice as Christmas Hero

Executive Director Trina Crawford sat in the middle of the Salvation Army Emergency Services office Thursday. The place was an organized mess.

Bags of Christmas gifts filled the office and spread over the floor. Most were in big sacks.

There were clothes, toys and other gifts, headed to young people in poor families throughout Hill County.

Since 2005, Trina has held a job that is technically part-time. Throughout the year, she is busy making sure poor families have enough to eat, can afford heat for their homes and have a roof over their heads.

But come Christmastime, it is in full bustle as Trina and volunteers collect, prepare and distribute Christmas gifts to poor people and work with Havre Food Bank to provide holiday food baskets.

It's also the time that Salvation Army raises most of its funds for the coming year through the famous red kettle campaign.

It's a job that she is sure God led her to; a job God has sustained her in. Every day, she strives to follow The work the biblical edict to help the poor.

Hundreds of people will get gifts and other kinds of help during the Christmas season under the programs she supervises.

But as she explained what the Salvation Army will be doing for people, she constantly punctuated her explanation with "but it's not me, it's the volunteers."

The whole operation depends on people who volunteer their time and the community members who donate money.

"This community is soooo generous," she said, emphasizing the word so. "I'm so astonished at the number of gifts people will get because of this community."

For Trina, this journey started in 2005. She was looking to re-enter the job market after taking two years off.

She had plenty of experience in lots of fields. She had worked in retail, in two social service programs at HRDC and had sold advertising for the Chinook Opinion newspaper.

But it was a chance meeting with Ralph and Peggy Guthrie, the last two uniformed Salvation Army officers to serve in Havre, that led her to the job.

She told them she was looking for part-time work at something that would be meaningful.

They called her back the next day and offered her just such a job.

She took the job and never looked back.

The Guthries later were assigned to Idaho, and Trina took over the emergency services part of their work.

She's had tough times on the job, but goes home every night happy that she has such a great job.

"I really love my job," she said.

The best part, she said, is to see people leave the Salvation Army with the help they need.

She takes the job very seriously,

Since the Salvation Army has limited funds and depends entirely on donations, she wants to make sure every cent is responsibly spent.

The Bible never says that you should only help people who deserve it, she said. But to make the most of the public's donations, they want to make sure that they help people not only by helping people financially but helping them reform their lives so they don't get into the same situation again.

She can work with people on budget issues, suggest they attend alcohol counselling, provide tips for finding a job and work with people to find transportation to work.

And she can remind people of their self-worth.

She offers each person a chance to pray with her, but she doesn't push the subject.

"If they want to pray, we do," she said.

Sometimes the people who receive aid appreciate it, sometimes not.

She recalled that several years ago a college student volunteered with the Salvation Army for the Christmas season, helping to distribute Christmas gifts.

After working for a while, he turned to Trina and said, "I can't believe they way they treat you. They don't even thank you."

Wait, Trina advised.

The next woman came in, got the gifts and broke into tears as she hugged the volunteer.

"If it weren't for you, my family wouldn't have a Christmas," she said, repeatedly thanking him.

"As long as I help one person, my job is worthwhile," Trina said.