March 29, 2024

Behind the bells

The Salvation Army’s Red Kettle Campaign inspires a lifelong dedication for local officers and volunteers
Nov. 30, 2016

Walk into a grocery store, retail center or downtown district during the holidays and you’re bound to hear them: the insistent, silvery chimes of a Salvation Army bell-ringer.

Started in 1891 as a fundraiser to provide the poverty-stricken residents of San Francisco a free Christmas dinner, The Salvation Army’s Red Kettle Campaign today has expanded to tens of thousands of communities across the U.S.
The donation pots — typically placed in front of well-trafficked local businesses and accompanied by an volunteer or paid bell-ringer — have become such a familiar sight that the reaction from passersby is often automatic. Hear a bell, reach for loose pocket change or a dollar from the billfold to put in the kettle. Holiday good deed accomplished.
But where does the money placed into those ubiquitous red kettles actually go? How are the donated funds spent? And why does such a diverse group of individuals — spanning all ages, demographics and backgrounds, some volunteers boisterous and outgoing, others bashful and reserved — return year after year to stand for hours in subzero temperatures and ring a small bell?
 
‘They gave me so much’
The Salvation Army, created in 1865, is a faith-based organization with a mission to “preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to meet human needs in His name without discrimination.” Though it enjoys household name recognition — Forbes lists Salvation Army as the second-largest U.S. charity after United Way — its inner workings can be mysterious to those who’ve never had cause to call on its programs or services.

For direct beneficiaries of Salvation Army resources, however, the organization inspires a fervent, often lifelong following — one that can lead to recurring volunteerism or even careers with the nonprofit. Capts. Jeff and Dawn Russell, a married couple who serve in Traverse City’s Salvation Army, both had childhood experiences that shaped their adult service with the group.

“I grew up in (government) housing with a single mom in Madison (Wis.),” said Dawn. “One of the Salvation Army leaders came to our home and asked if they could take us to their church and youth programs. I loved it. Since I was 5 or 6 years old, I grew up in the Salvation Army.”

The organization offers a broad array of services to families in need, including meal and food, energy bill and emergency financial assistance. Salvation Army has divisions to provide emergency disaster assistance and emergency shelter, as well as an extensive network of religious programming and youth development classes.
Dawn, who says she participated in or witnessed the impact of “all of those programs,” began helping with holiday bell-ringing at a young age. “I knew the kettles helped people, and I knew I needed to be a part of that,” she said. “That was my way of giving back, because they gave me so much. We were on public assistance at the time, so the food assistance (from the Salvation Army) was a major thing for us.”


Jeff also grew up benefiting from Salvation Army programming, first with his mother in Brooklyn and then in California when he went to live with his uncle, an officer with the organization. “That was in fourth grade. I had all these experiences with the food drives and the bell-ringing and Christmas with the Salvation Army. I grew up off and on in it.”

Ruth Blick, director of community resource development at Traverse City’s Salvation Army, says stories like the Russells’ are common not just among staff but a large number of volunteer bell-ringers.

“It’s amazing how many families have been impacted by the Salvation Army,” she said. “It’s everyone from great-grandfathers in World War II who depended on it (to survive) to someone who just needed food for a month or was out of work short-term and then got back on their feet. But they never forget the difference it made at that point in their lives.”

The volunteers
Jessica Culbertson is one such example of a volunteer. Her grandmother, Mary Louise Johnson, learned of the Salvation Army as a child and sought the organization out on her own. As an adult, Johnson was honored as a “super sergeant” and devoted her life to the Salvation Army, bringing all of her children — and eventually grandchildren, including Culbertson — to the group’s Sunday school, camps and after-school programs in Grand Haven and later Manistee.

“It became her whole life,” recalled Culbertson. “She ran the thrift store. She would do Bible studies. She used to go around to the local bars and jails and counsel those in need. She was part of Toys for Tots. And she had more than 20 years of bell-ringing experience.”

Johnson passed away of lung cancer in 2009. Though Culbertson, now 36 and living in Traverse City, was deeply involved in Salvation Army programming as a child and teen, she didn’t remain active in the organization as an adult. But her grandmother’s death prompted her in recent years to reconsider volunteering.

“This year it really hit me that I wanted to honor my grandma,” she said. “The best way I could do that is to carry on her legacy and start bell-ringing, and to get my daughter involved and teach her what my grandma taught me.”
Culbertson and her 13-year-old daughter, Madison, completed their first shift of bell-ringing outside a Traverse City Family Fare store on Nov. 17. Madison held a sign with a photo collage of her great-grandmother explaining Johnson’s service to the Salvation Army.

“It was a natural high — so many people saw our sign and stopped and asked about her,” Culbertson said. “They would share their own experiences with the Salvation Army and were so willing to give. I could hear parents talking to their children when they walked up about the Salvation Army and how they help the community. It created a dialogue, which I thought was awesome.”

Madison was also impacted by the bell-ringing experience, which the mother-daughter duo plan to repeat, Culbertson said. “My grandmother died before (Madison) got to know her, so she mentioned she got to feel close to her by doing that. She was very emotional about it. She thought she was paying it forward, and that grandma would have been proud.”

Cindy Green is another first-time volunteer bell-ringer in northern Michigan this year. On Nov. 19, Green bundled up her 8-year-old special-needs granddaughter, Madilyn, to ring outside a Traverse City Kmart during the region’s first major winter storm. “I’ve tried to do little things to help people at Christmas, but I’m not always able to give money,” Green said. “I thought I could give of my time instead. My family has had help before (from the Salvation Army), and my granddaughters do different things with them, so I thought this would be a good way to help.”
Green says she felt particularly motivated to volunteer this year in the midst of the post-election climate. “I keep looking at different things going in the country and the world, and I think we need to be a kinder people,” she said. “We were put here to help other people, not just take care of ourselves.” The 59-year-old says she brought her granddaughter to set an example for her. “I think it’s really important young people learn to help other people,” she said.

For other Salvation Army volunteers, bell-ringing has become an annual tradition stretching back years and even decades. Tom Mountz, a long-time maintenance supervisor with the National Park Service, is entering his 23rd year of bell-ringing in Traverse City. “I am always heartened to hear someone’s story of the help they received from the Salvation Army,” he said. “These are often somber stories, closing with their deep appreciation of the Salvation Army.”

Mountz, who is usually posted outside of Horizon Books on Front Street, has acquired a wealth of humorous anecdotes in his time by the kettle. When Gordie Howe approached one year, Mountz said: “You look familiar. Are you Stan Mikita?” The question — referencing a fierce opponent of Howe’s — caused the hockey legend to break out in a “belly laugh,” Mountz said. Gov. William Milliken and Sen. Robert Griffin both donated generously to Mountz’ kettle, he said, as have countless nameless contributors who had “given already, but comment they cannot pass a bucket without contributing, and slip in some more.”

One donor “weaved his way to the bucket and began freely slipping in currency from his recently cashed check,” Mountz recalled. “I sensed he could have been over-served, and said there was a daily limit. He said, ‘OK, I’ll be back tomorrow.’” Mountz also keeps an extra bell on-hand for kids to ring. “Most love doing it,” he said. “I let them know they can have their own station when they get older, and they can hardly wait.”

In Petoskey, the Salvation Army’s Amy Evans praises the commitment of long-time volunteer Tim Kubek, who not only dresses up and plays Santa Claus but mans a kettle outside Oleson’s on a full-time basis, Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. She says Kubek exemplifies the importance of volunteers to the Red Kettle Campaign, which runs from early November to Christmas Eve. “If you put an unmanned kettle in the highest traffic area with big signs around it, it’ll bring in one dollar,” Evans said. “A bell-ringer will bring in a few hundred dollars. It makes a huge difference to put someone out there.”
 
The logistics
Putting “someone out there,” however, is no easy logistical feat. In Traverse City, which has 19 bell-ringing locations operating Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., there are approximately 3,400 two-hour volunteer shifts to fill every season. Each shift is invaluable, explains Blick, because if volunteers can’t be found for a particular time window, the kettle goes empty.

“For every two hours of bell-ringing, there is an average of $80 raised (in one kettle),” said Blick. “That’s one family’s heat for a month, or 80 meals, or three kids attending camp for a day. The average person might not be able to donate $80, but if they can give us two hours of their time, that’s invaluable.”

Traverse City’s Red Kettle fundraising goal this year is $175,000 — a target in the neighborhood of successful campaign goals in recent past years, officials say. That figure represents 40 percent of Salvation Army’s overall Christmas fundraising goal, with the other 60 percent coming from mailed-in checks and dropped-off donations.
Petoskey’s Salvation Army has a $70,000 Red Kettle fundraising goal this season, according to Evans. “We’re going off a percentage of previous years,” she said. “Last year was a record-breaking year of $81,000, because we had good weather. But in previous years, our maximum was $58,000.” Petoskey’s Salvation Army — which serves Charlevoix and Antrim counties in addition to Emmet — has 13 bell-ringing locations and 14 countertop kettles in rotation.

So how do all those donations get spent? The Salvation Army first stresses that dollars raised in each local service area stay in that particular service area. In Traverse City, $72,000 goes toward the Good Neighbor Fund, which provides “emergency assistance to our neighbors experiencing challenges with medical/dental, vehicle repair, housing, energy and other critical needs.” Dawn Russell, the Salvation Army captain, explains that if a resident’s car breaks down and they’re working paycheck to paycheck, “it can be devastating without some kind of help to fix that.” The Good Neighbor Fund helps cover such unanticipated emergency costs. Other Red Kettle funds go to supporting year-round programming, including the Salvation Army’s food pantry and energy assistance program.
 Evans says Petoskey dollars support a similar discretionary fund, as well as holiday vouchers and Christmas gifts for families. “It goes into a local fund for year-round use,” she says. “If someone needs bus fare to get to a medical appointment, or diabetic socks, or help with the water bill — which isn’t covered under energy assistance — this fund helps pay for those things.”

Both Traverse City and Petoskey’s Salvation Army locations reiterate how important volunteers are to meeting their Christmas fundraising goals. Interested residents can sign up for Traverse City bell-ringing shifts at satraversecity.org or call 231-946-4644; people near Petoskey should visit sapetoskey.org or call 231-347-3531. Individuals can also host “virtual” Red Kettle campaigns through onlineredkettle.com, which allows for collecting donations through social media, email and text message. 

Green says she’s learned firsthand that regardless of an individual’s time or financial constraints, it’s still possible to make a difference.

“Everybody has a little time to give,” she said. “Everybody can do a little something.”

Beth Milligan is The Traverse City Ticker’s head writer.

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