Two longtime commanders were named to head the Salvation Army’s Baltimore headquarters, the charity announced this week, with hopes the husband-and-wife team can guide the financially embattled office to recovery.
Following reports of a sharp decline in donations, the Baltimore-area office last month closed the landmark Highlandtown Boys and Girls Club after almost 60 years of operation. Earlier this year, then-commander Maj. Jim Arrowood said he expected the current $6 million budget to fall about $450,000 short.
But Friday, new commanding officer Maj. Gary Haupt said the deficit will likely be closer to $150,000. Haupt, who has worked as a Salvation Army financial officer for more than 24 years, said many charity offices —including his former Florida base — suffered drops in donations after Hurricane Katrina.
“In many cases, people marked their donations strictly for Katrina relief,” he said. “But none of the other stuff stopped. You were still sending kids to summer camp and running emergency shelters at home.”
Lt. Col. Donald Faulkner, the charity’s regional secretary of personnel, said most officers stay on an appointment for three to five years. Haupt and his wife Suzanne, who will direct the office’s women’s ministries, were among 300 of the southern regions 950 reappointments this year.
The Haupts said they have done everything from visiting nursing-home residents to serving in a makeshift morgue after a plane crash. Suzanne Haupt worked in the Houston Astrodome in Katrina’s aftermath.
But, Faulkner acknowledged, Gary Haupt’s financial experience contributed to the appointment.
“It wasn’t a matter of whether or not the Arrowoods did a good job or not, because they did,” Faulkner said. “We picked Gary and Suzanne partly because he has a good technical, financial, administrative background.”
Haupt said he will spend the next weeks studying the office’s problems and will meet with the charity’s advisory board in September to discuss solutions.
Arrowood, who commanded the office since 2001, and his wife Linda, will direct the charity’s Jacksonville, Fla., office.
