Salvation Army in need of holiday bell ringers
By Becky Barclay
Published in News on October 1, 2016 10:09 PM
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News-Argus/SETH COMBS
Sherrie Stokes demonstrates what a volunteer bell ringer does during the holiday season. The organization is looking for volunteers to man the kettles this year.
Although Christmas is still a few months away, the Salvation Army is already looking for volunteers to ring the bell and man the familiar red kettles during the holiday season.
Lt. Phillip Stokes said he's already getting a few calls from people wanting to take spots for this year's bell ringing program.
The kettles will be at various places, including KMart, Sam's Club, WalMart, Carlie C's, Harris Teeter and the mall.
Kettles need to be manned Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., starting Nov. 18 at smaller locations and Nov. 25 at larger locations through Christmas Eve.
The Salvation Army asks bell ringers to take an entire day to ring the bell. He said a group could split the day. If someone wants to ring the bell, but just cannot take an entire day, the Salvation Army can work with that.
The Salvation Army will set up the kettle and stand and provide an apron and a bell. The Salvation Army also collects the money at the end of the day.
All the volunteer has to do is ring the bell and have fun.
"They are there to interact with people in the community," Stokes said.
They can also sing, dance or play an instrument if they want to.
"If someone passes a bell ringer who's singing and that person is down because of the way life is treating them, they hear that singing and it will bring joy to their heart," Stokes said. "They might even begin to sing along. I've seen that happen."
Not only does the kettle program help those in need, but it also helps the bell ringers themselves, Stokes said.
"I have not seen a volunteer yet who does it who has a terrible experience," Stokes said. "The biggest stories you will hear is people coming up and saying they give because the Salvation Army did this for them when they were a child and gave their family a Christmas when it didn't have any money. Or the Salvation Army kept their lights on, stuff like that."
Stokes said ringing the bell is a good way to promote your church or your business.
"I tell businesses to hand out their business cards when they're manning the kettle," he said. "On the stand itself, it will say that this kettle is manned by this group. So we let everyone know who does it."
If a business doesn't have enough employees to man a kettle for a day, but still wants to help, it can sponsor a kettle at various donation levels and get its name on a kettle as a sponsor.
"Last year we had the ROTC group from Eastern Wayne High School volunteer," Stokes said. "This year I want to get the other ROTC groups in the area, take a Saturday and do a battle for the bells. I want to have the schools complete against each other."
Stokes said he hopes that when people see the Salvation Army shield at the kettles, they see hope. And when people in the community help with the kettle campaign, they are part of that hope, helping someone put food on their table, keep their lights on or pay the rent.
"We'd love to have 100 percent volunteers ringing the bell, but we do have to hire people to help," Stokes said. "Using volunteers lets us keep more of our net funds to put back into the community with some of our social services that we do. So the more volunteers we have, the more profit we make to do more out in the community."
Anyone wanting to volunteer should call the Salvation Army office at 919-735-4811 or Stokes at 919-394-7863.