Editorial
Front Page - Friday, December 17, 2010
Salvation Army reaching out to donors, volunteers
David Laprad
Salvation Army bell ringers are one of the most familiar and beloved heralds of the holiday season. Here, local marketing director Kimberly George and a member of the local board of directors solicit donations at the Kmart on Highway 58.
- David Laprad
Silver bells; silver bells,
It’s Christmas time in the city.
Ring-a-ling; hear them sing.
Soon it will be Christmas day.
“Silver Bells,” the classic Christmas song first recorded by Bing Crosby and Carol Richards in 1950, was inspired by the sound of Salvation Army bell ringers standing outside department stores during the holiday season.
All these years later, the bell ringers are still one of the most familiar and beloved heralds of Christmas. As they ask for donations to help those in need, they also remind people that the holidays are about more than the commercialism that permeates the season.
Kimberly George, marketing director at the Chattanooga branch of the Salvation Army, says the ongoing mission of the organization has remained the same over the years, too.
“We’re here to meet needs in Christ’s name without discrimination. And we promise the community we’ll do the most good with their time, talents and resources,” she says.
While the Salvation Army is steeped in tradition, it is open to progress when it serves its mission. For example, many bell ringers now watch over a credit and debit card reader as opposed to a red kettle. And becoming a bell ringer is easier than ever, as volunteers can visit a newly launched Web site, ringbells.org, and register to serve at a specific time and location in their community.
“The site sends us an email when you enter your information, and then we contact you to confirm the details,” George says.
Businesses and churches have used the system to cover a block of time at a particular location, with employees or church members rotating out each hour.
“You only have to give an hour of your time, but when you add that to the time several other people put in, your church or business has covered an entire day of bell ringing,” George says.
The nickels, dimes, quarters and dollar bills people place in the kettle – or swipe through the card reader – adds up which allows the Salvation Army to feed hungry people at Thanksgiving and Christmas. It helps all of the children and senior citizens on the Angel Trees to receive a present, operate emergency shelters during cold weather, help people in need with utility bills and
prescription medicine and more.
Due to the onset of frigid
temperatures, the Salvation Army is operating an emergency shelter for women during the evening at ReCreate Café, located at 800 McCallie Ave. A shelter for anyone who needs to get warm is open days at the same location.
During last year’s Red Kettle Christmas Campaign, people donated $365,000 to the Chattanooga Salvation Army. George says donations appear to be on track to hit the same number this year, although the amount of requests for assistance the Salvation Army has received in 2010 has tripled over 2009.
While the $5,500 in $100 bills an anonymous donor put in the kettle at the Ft. Oglethorpe Wal-Mart will help, the Sal-vation Army is looking to the community to meet the rest of the need.
“While we’re concerned about donations, we know we live in a generous community, and when this community realizes there’s a need, people step up,” George says.
The Salvation Army has been relying on local communities since 1865, when a Methodist minister named William Booth launched a movement that eventually became the world-renowned organization.
While preaching in London, England, Booth saw that many of the city’s poor didn’t feel welcome in church, so he took the Gospel to the streets.
In time, Booth gathered a large enough following that police told him to take it inside. Booth still wanted people to feel comfortable, so he started preaching in pool halls around London. Once Booth was indoors, though, people felt as though they had to dress up, so he decided to have everyone wear a uniform so they’d look the same.
“As they went from place to place in their sequined uniforms, the brass instruments providing music, people started saying they looked like an army. And Booth said, ‘We are an army. We’re an army for salvation,’” George says.
The bell ringers entered the picture in 1891, when a Salvation Army captain named Joseph McFee decided to find an innovative way to raise funds to feed hungry people. When he set up a black kettle on a San Francisco street and started ringing a bell to attract attention, the coins started piling up. In no time, the rest of the Salvation Army chapters around England caught on, George says.
The Salvation Army opened its first U.S. chapter in New York City in 1880. Thirteen years later, the organization arrived in Chattanooga.
“That surprises me, because even today, it takes longer than that for a fashion statement to make its way from New York City to Chattanooga,” George says, laughing.
George wants people to understand the Salvation Army doesn’t just crawl out of the woodwork during the holidays and then disappear again after the first of the year.
Rather, the Salvation Army is a 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year organization.
“We’re more visible at Christmas because of the red kettles, but if someone is too busy now, please give us a call after the first of the year,” she says.
George says volunteering for the Salvation Army is a good resume builder for people who are out of work and a great experience for college students.
“If you don’t have any money, your time is just as valuable to us.”
For more information on volunteer opportunities at the Salvation Army or to donate online, visit www.csarmy.org. On the main page of the site, visitors will see a plea from the organization to help it wage war against hunger, homelessness, poverty and abuse: “It’s a struggle for hope that’s only possible through your generosity. Please help. We can’t win without you.”
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