By Derek Spellman

dspellman@joplinglobe.com

For the fifth straight year, Santa has ridden to the aid of Joplin’s Salvation Army.

Capt. Jason Poff said an anonymous donor dropped five checks for $10,000 each into kettles at the two Wal-Mart locations Thursday night. As in years past, the checks were cashiers checks purchased from Commerce Bank, with the remitter identified as “Santa Claus.”

The checks were left in kettles at both Wal-Mart stores in Joplin, Poff said.

The donation puts the agency to within $25,000 of its total fund-raising goal of $216,000, with five days remaining in the annual kettle campaign, he said.

“If we get it, it will be a record,” he said of the target amount. “We decided to raise the goal because the need is so much greater.”

Poff said the Salvation Army does not know the identity of the donor.

Asked if the local chapter now usually plans on the regular $50,000 donation, Poff replied, “yes and no.”

“We try not to plan on it because it is a gift,” he said, although he noted that it is something for which the local chapter hopes.

Fred Osborn, president of the Commerce Bank of Joplin, said he did not know the identity of the “Santa Claus” who got the checks from Commerce. Regardless, the information would be confidential.

Asked to speculate on the donor’s identity, he joked: “It’s Santa Claus. He banks with Commerce. He has for years.”

Poff acknowledged that individual donations of this magnitude were rare for the Salvation Army, although he called the contributions “tremendous” in light of an economic downturn.

Although the identity of the donor remains unknown, a pattern has emerged in the annual donations.

The checks are usually slipped into kettles late in the Salvation Army’s campaign, and usually at Wal-Mart locations. The donations came in the form of checks this year, last year and in 2006.