In Mount Clemens, generosity doesn’t have a season. We’re a town that shows up for its own. Yet every holiday season, our city fills with quiet acts of care that rarely make the headlines. This year, we’re giving these acts the spotlight they deserve, and letting you know how you can be part of the giving.
The Salvation Army: Miracles on Church Street
Before she became assistant administrator at The Salvation Army, Korienna Cox admits she saw homelessness the way most people do: through a television lens. “It’s nothing like that,” she says now. “When you start learning their names and treating them like people, everything changes.”
Families with children up to age 16, and seniors 60 and older, apply online for holiday assistance. Once they’re approved, they receive food boxes, a Kroger gift card for their holiday meat of choice, and access to Santa’s Workshop: rooms lined with new, unwrapped toys donated through the Angel Tree program at local Walmarts.
“There’s nothing quite like watching parents pick out toys for their kids,” Korienna says. “They know their children best. And for some families, this is the only Christmas they’ll have.”
One year, Korienna guided a father through the toy stations until he quietly asked to stop. “He told me, ‘My kids have never had a Christmas like this. I don’t want to overdo it,’” she recalls. “It was such a humble, grateful moment.” She also recalls a volunteer who distributed toys. “She said, ‘This was the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done.’ She came back every year until she couldn’t anymore.”
The Citadel’s work continues year-round: daily lunch service for the public, a weekday breakfast and shower program for the homeless, a youth character-building program, three addiction recovery meetings each week, and emergency aid for rent, utilities, and groceries. “Hunger, hardship, and loneliness don’t take holidays,” Korienna says.
Donations of time and money are both essential, but volunteers carry a special power. “At RegisterToRing.com, you can sign up to ring bells for us during kettle season,” she says. “Every volunteer hour saves us labor costs. And those dollars go directly back to families.”
Cox says the community’s generosity keeps the operation alive. “Share your joy,” she says, and her passion is evident. “Bring hope to those feeling hopeless.” Then she quotes Galatians 5:13: “Serve one another humbly in love.”
Mount Clemens Kiwanis: Ringing in Christmas—literally
When you do see those red kettles, Mount Clemens Kiwanis members are often the volunteers standing beside them, bells in hand and smiles at the ready. The club’s partnership with The Salvation Army stretches back more than seventy years. “We usually take one full day, sometimes two, and fill every shift from morning till evening,” says longtime member Bill Moore. “People bring their families. One guy even showed up with a ukulele one year. It feels more like a celebration than a fundraiser.”
Kiwanis volunteers also serve lunch at the Citadel each month, preparing meals for roughly eighty people. “We know some of them by name,” Moore says. “It warms your heart while you’re warming their bellies.”
Goodfellows: No Child Without a Christmas
A few blocks away is another holiday tradition: the Mount Clemens Goodfellows, founded almost a century ago, give the gift of gifts. Their signature No Child Without a Christmas program provides toys and $75 vouchers for local kids. “Our sole purpose is helping families in Mount Clemens,” says Tony Kirkum, a third-generation Goodfellow. “We hold two main fundraisers: the Raspberry newspaper sale and the 777 raffle. And every dollar goes back to the community.”
In 2023, the all-volunteer Goodfellows supplied 117 families and 225 children with almost $30,000 of gifts and vouchers. Members, many of them continuing family legacies like Tony’s, shop for the children themselves. “It’s a brotherhood,” Kirkum says. “You’ve got ten guys buying toys for toddlers, others for teens. It keeps us connected.”
The heart of the program lives in small moments. The Kirkum family has collected donations at the corner of Cass and Gratiot for decades. “A man pulled his semi into the turn lane once, got out, hugged my dad, and said, ‘You were the only reason I had Christmas as a kid.’ Two grown men just stood there crying,” he recalls. “That’s when you know it’s all worth it.”
Donations can be made at MountClemensGoodfellows.com
St. Peter Catholic Church: Faith in action
At St. Peter Catholic Church, outreach is a way of life. “We’ve served Mount Clemens for more than a century, with programs that meet both spiritual and physical needs,” says communications manager Elisabeth Kujawa. Each winter, St. Peter’s Giving Tree program supplies gifts for nursing home residents and children in foster care. Last year, parishioners filled 1,200 gift tags. The church’s St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry, open Wednesdays and Fridays from 9 a.m. to noon behind the parish office, provides groceries, utility-bill assistance, and even help obtaining ID cards. In 2024, they distributed a record 575 turkeys to local families and veterans’ homes.
But when temperatures drop, St. Peter’s most urgent mission takes place downstairs, in the church basement. Their Warming Center, open every January through March, offers hot meals, clothing, and community.
“Our first day, we served five people,” says volunteer coordinator Lori Ches. “By the end of last season, we averaged sixty a day. One day we had eighty-eight.” Over the 36-day season, the center’s 74 volunteers served nearly 4,500 meals, and distributed 10,000 items of clothing, toiletries, and household goods.
Some guests are unhoused. Some are working but under-employed. Some are seniors on fixed incomes, seeking warmth and companionship. “It’s about feeding the hungry and clothing the naked—literally,” Ches says. “This is a way to put our faith into action.”
One young man came in with soaked shoes and aching feet. Volunteers discovered he had trench foot and sent him to the McLaren Hospital mobile medical bus parked outside. “He came back weeks later to thank us,” Ches recalls. “So we’ve actually saved lives.”
St. Peter’s also maintains a Blessing Box stocked with food and toiletries, and invites donations of winter wear, gift cards, or cash through the parish office. Its youth ministry runs Jingle for Jesus, a 15-year tradition that benefits Covenant House Detroit and Big Family of Michigan. And each December, the church caps the season with a Tree Lighting Ceremony where parishioners bring the Baby Jesus from their home nativity sets for a blessing before carols, cocoa, and Santa’s arrival.
Other Churches Uplifting Mount Clemens
- Covenant Christian Center International (Bishop C.S. Oosterveen) hosts a weekly recovery ministry, Thursday feeding program, and Sunday worship at 10:30 a.m. They also teach life skills, provide addiction and trauma counseling, a food and clothing pantry, and youth mentorship through outdoor activities. They also use harvested game to feed the homeless: "We take young men out who don't have fathers and we teach them to hunt," says Dr. Oosterveen. "We hunt deer and pheasants here in Michigan, and I also have a hunter hunting bear, elk, moose, wild boar and alligator down in Florida. We use what we harvest to feed the homeless on our Thursday nights."
- Grace Episcopal Church held their annual Thanksgiving Fest on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and their Thanksgiving Day Breakfast, hosted by Women’s Transitional Ministries by God’s Design. Both are open to anyone in need.
- Tried Stone Missionary Baptist Church operates a weekly food pantry every Thursday, 11 a.m.–2 p.m. Macomb County residents can call (586) 463-9422 to make an appointment.
Across Mount Clemens, from soup kitchens to church halls to street corners, the spirit of giving is alive and well. The Salvation Army’s Korienna Cox sums it up inspiringly: “God is still so good,” she says. “Even in the hard parts, we see His work here every day.”
“This is a way to put our faith into action.”
“Share your joy…bring hope to those feeling hopeless.”