A Bell Ringer's Story
Lynn Schmidt, a journalist with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, kindly shared her experiences with us about bell ringing for The Salvation Army. This story was originally published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Sunday, Dec. 24, 2023, which you can access via this link: "Opinion: Bell-ringing for The Salvation Army restores faith in the goodness of Americans"
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People are good, kind, and generous.
My family and I had the pleasure of volunteering as Salvation Army bell ringers this holiday season.
We stood in front of a local grocery store while wearing our red Salvation Army aprons and rang our bells for the two hour shift. We encountered hundreds of people, all of whom reinforced my notion that most people are decent and charitable. And of the hundreds of Merry Christmases we exclaimed, not one person had a negative rebuttal.
William Booth founded the Christian charitable organization, The Salvation Army in 1865 in London as a way of “taking the gospel of Jesus Christ directly to the people.”
The Salvation Army’s red kettle campaign began later, in 1891, by Captain Joseph McFee, a Salvation Army officer who was looking for a way to cover the cost of his community’s Christmas meal.
McFee, who was also a sailor in Liverpool, used the idea of a “Simpson’s Pot,” an iron pot where charitable donations were placed by those passing by. McFee also placed a similar pot at the Oakland Ferry Landing, in the San Francisco Bay area.
By 1895 the kettle was used by 30 locations along the west coast and by 1897 the campaign had expanded to the east coast. In 1897, the kettle efforts in locations nationwide resulted in 150,000 Christmas dinners for the hungry.
McFee’s tradition continues today in countless communities across the United States. The Salvation Army uses the donations received for caring for unhoused and hungry families, and helps serve 30 million people through innumerable other services all year long.
The list of those other services is long and includes religious services; assisting survivors of natural and man-made disasters to recover and rebuild their lives; social service programs which provide food, shelter, clothing, and financial assistance; casework and counseling with programs for health care and residential assistance and abuse counseling; youth services with programs for music, athletics, arts, and crafts; camping and family counseling, senior centers; Christmas programs which help families and individuals financially with toys, meals and other assistance; human and sexual trafficking advocacy; veterans services which provide a range of support, gifts, counseling, and housing assistance; and finally, prison services which include Bible correspondence courses, gifts/material aid, prerelease job training programs, employment opportunities in cooperation with parole personnel, and spiritual guidance for both prisoners and their families.
In 2023, The Salvation Army in Greater St. Louis fed over 300,000 meals to those who were hungry, helped over 9,000 people keep their lights on by providing utility assistance, distributed over 30,000 items of clothing and delivered groceries to over 65,000 people.
Knowing that a couple hours of time could bring so many benefits to the larger St. Louis community, my family signed up to volunteer.
We rang our bells and people smiled as they dropped whatever they could afford into our kettle. Some commented “I wish I had more” or “This is all I have.” Most were incredibly generous. We even had individuals leave the store and come back with their donations. The charitableness was heartwarming.
As someone who is aware of the epidemic of loneliness affecting our communities, I relished the opportunity to make eye contact, offer a few words or just a smile to those isolated. For some of the people walking past us, the grocery store clerk might be the only human being they speak to during any given day. I was happy to be another touchpoint for these people.
I probably said “Merry Christmas” over a hundred times over the course of my shift. If shoppers did not respond in kind, they said things like “Have a good day” or “Thank You.” It would be naive to think that every person who walked past our kettle celebrates Christmas, but not one pushed back or had a negative thing to say.
My family and I volunteered at one of the 700 Salvation Army kettle locations throughout Missouri and were gladly among the nearly 12,000 volunteers helping with the holiday bellringing activities.
I left with a joy-filled heart, a kettle full of donations to the Salvation Army, and the knowledge that America is going to be okay. Ring-a-ling and Merry Christmas!