When the red Salvation Army buckets come in at the end of the day, Marcos Marquez, an administrator with the nonprofit, is in charge of counting the donations.

There's always loose change and a smattering of $1 and $5 bills. Sometimes a $20 and, on rare occasions, a $100 bill. When those big donations come in, it usually elicits a cheer from Marquez and the staff at the Moore Street Salvation Army Corps in North Portland.

On Wednesday night, Marquez spotted a $100 bill. And then another. And another.

"At first, we thought it was maybe three- or four-thousand dollars," he said. "But it just kept going and going."

All told, some generous soul had dropped $10,000 in one of those red kettles you've probably seen outside of local stores, usually accompanied by a bell-ringing donation taker.

The Moore Street location oversees 26 of these donation stations around Portland, which usually bring in between $3,000 and $7,000 per day, with contributions growing as the holidays get closer.

But Marquez said, before Wednesday's windfall, donations had been lagging and the nonprofit was in danger of falling short of its goal. Money raised during the "red kettle campaign," as he called it, amounts to about 40 percent of the Moore Street Salvation Army's annual operating budget.

"We were behind," Marquez said. "Now we're looking like we might exceed what we brought in last year."

The massive donation, which was dropped at the Fred Meyer store on NE Weidler Street, will be used in North Portland. The Moore Street location runs a community center, complete with a weight room and lockers, hosts sports camps for kids during the summer and administers an emergency food pantry that feeds between 40 and 50 families.

"One of the challenges of being a nonprofit is stretching the impact of every dollar we get," Marquez said. "10,000 more of those dollars will certainly go a long way."

Marquez said he hopes whoever made the donation sees news reports about it.

"I just want to offer my most warm, sincere thank you to this person," he said. "It is truly a blessing."

-- Kale Williams

kwilliams@oregonian.com

503-294-4048