Just because nobody was available to ring the bell doesn’t mean that people weren’t donating to the Salvation Army Red Kettle Christmas drive this past week. Above Andrew Keith contributes to Salvation Army’s red kettle after shopping at Johnson’s Foods. Photo courtesy of John Stember
The headline of an Alabama paper read “Salvation Army in Desperate Need of Volunteers as Christmas approaches” and that would seem to be true for our area.
While Cook County’s Salvation Army kettle campaign is up and running, there are fewer bell ringers this year, said Sharon Bloomquist, who is in charge of the local service unit.
“People’s lives change. Some who rang in previous years are too busy this year. Some sign up and forget. I tell people who are passing a kettle to stop and ring for a few minutes,” she said.
“Donations are down, and it might be because we don’t have as many bell ringers as we have in the past. Hopefully donations will pick up in the next week or so. We will keep the kettles up until the start of the new year.”
All donations received locally pretty much stay in the community, Sharon noted. “We take care of our local needs first. If there is any money left at the end of our budget year, which is at the end of September, we send that money to help with fires of floods or some other greater need.”
A priority is to meet emergency needs that are unmet by other means and would certainly include food, shelter, and fuel.
Your local Salvation Army service unit can’t spend more than what is taken in during the kettle campaign. However, if Cook County experienced a natural disaster beyond our budget, the Army would step in to provide relief.
That brings us back to the kettle campaign and the importance of attendants at the kettles. As Bloomquist noted, if you have even a few minutes and there is no attendant at a Red Kettle, stop and ring it for a while and greet your friends and neighbors. Every bit of spare change adds up, and helps pick up those who fall into a sad situation.
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