Unbeknownst to me, the Salvation Army uses almost exclusively volunteers to ring the bells during the holiday season.
Even more surprising is that you can volunteer for as little as 2 hours by registering at www.RingBells.org. The registration process requires no intereaction with people, and simply requires that you select a location near you, pick an available time, and then show up to ring the bell!
Dad and I went to Stoughton at Walgreens and Pick and Save respectively. I dropped Dad off at Walgreens, and then went over to Pick and Save.
For all of the media fervor about the collapsing economy, people donate to the Salvation army with a generosity that seems unaffected by the economy. Most surprising of all was the children.
Most of the children a person remembers seem to be the poorly behaved, evil-tempered brats, since those are the ones that attract your attention. What I witnessed warmed my heart. Not just one or two, but many children placing what money they had in the kettle.
Little girls with their toy purses, carefully extracting whatever money they had and placing it in the kettle.Little boys digging furiously for what I was sure would be a frog and producing what coins they had. All of this without the prompting of their parents.
These are our future citizens. With compassion and generosity deeply engrained in their personalities, they will help improve the human condition.
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