Salvation Army Major Moving On | Video

Retha Colclasure | 6/20/2012

There`s a changing of the guard at Bismarck`s Salvation Army. Major Lee Morrison is being transferred from the Bismarck location to St. Cloud, MN. Morrison came to North Dakota from Minnesota. Before Minnesota, he and his wife worked for the Salvation Army in Michigan and Wisconsin.

Even though it`s his last week on the job, Morrison is still hard at work. He led the Salvation Army through a lot of growth.

"When we arrived the building doubled in size."

An increase in need.

"Forty-two percent increase this time over the same time last year in food assistance."

And an increase in giving.

"When we arrived here our budget was $560,000. As we leave our budget for next year is $1.1 million."

Morrison has seen a lot in his four and a half years in Bismarck.

"A friend of mine who had lived here before said the good thing about Bismarck, it never floods there. Two out of four years we dealt with floods."

Even that was something the Salvation Army was able to help with.

"That did give the community the opportunity to see the multi-faceted work of the Salvation Army because not only were we serving 40,000 meals, at the same time we`re doing our regular programming for our rent and utility assistance. All those kinds of things kept happening."

Morrison says he wants the community to continue to support the Salvation Army`s work, and says he may come back, if there`s another flood.

Morrison says one thing he`ll enjoy about being in St. Cloud is that he`s closer to five grandchildren, some of whom will be just minutes away. His replacements will arrive from Indiana next week.

COMMENT ON THIS STORY