Fernando Martinez will be looking for a miracle this Christmas.

The Salvation Army's Miami area commander, Martinez oversees the organization's local fundraising efforts, including the red-kettle collections that have become a holiday tradition. At about 100 sites throughout metro Miami, Salvation Army volunteers and staff stand outside retail outlets, ringing a bell and seeking donations from generous shoppers.

But generosity is in short supply this year, and Martinez is expecting collections to be about 25 percent less than last year. Five days before Christmas, the kettles had brought in about $94,000 -- about $50,000 short of its goal this season.

``We are suffering out there,'' Martinez says.

Red-kettle collections, which run through Christmas Eve, usually pick up the last few days of the shopping season. However, the shortfall is so great this year that it really will take a miracle to make up the difference.

``The next few days are crucial for us,'' he says.

POOR DISTINCTION

The economy, certainly, is part of the problem: Collections are down throughout the country, he says. But Miami is having among the worst showings in the nation. It's a dishonorable distinction that has become commonplace for us regardless of economic conditions.

When it comes to dropping money in those red kettles, we typically lag other major U.S. cities. While the Salvation Army's red-kettle collections here usually hover between $100,000 and $150,000, shoppers in Atlanta, by comparison, donate about $1 million each holiday season.

``Latinos coming here don't know the Salvation Army as well as do people in other parts of the country,'' Martinez says.

SHELTERS HUNDREDS

We certainly seem to know it well enough, however, when it comes to seeking help from the Salvation Army, which provides shelters to some 400 people each night, many of whom lost their homes to foreclosures. The organization also provides services to veterans and the poor -- food, medicine, tickets to travel to see relatives. This holiday season, it gave away more than 21,000 toys to children of struggling families.

In his 41 years in the Salvation Army, which includes stints everywhere from Bolivia and Chile to the U.S. West Coast, Martinez says he has ``never, ever'' seen so many people coming to the organization for help as he has seen here.

CREDIT-CARD DONATIONS

To give red-kettle fundraising a boost in the future, Martinez is considering accepting credit cards at the collection sites. It's already being done in other cities, which are reporting successful results as credit-card donations tend to be higher than those made in cash. One reason is that shoppers will typically drop spare change or loose dollar bills as they pass the kettles. With credit cards, more thought goes into the process and the donation usually amounts to more than just a few cents.

Martinez considered adding the credit-card option this year. But the cost of placing credit-card processing machines at each site -- a few hundred dollars per machine -- was too great. He'll need to raise money for that, too.

So, he's looking for a miracle.

It doesn't have to be a really big one. A few modest miracles will do. He got one on Friday, when a man, whom Martinez declined to name, called and donated $10,000. His hope is that a few more similar checks will come in this week.

Don't even need to call. Dropping it in the red kettle will do.