Celebrating National Volunteer Week – London’s Volunteer Bellringers are Vital to the Mission of The Salvation Army

If you think The Salvation Army doesn’t need volunteers, think again.

Without them, our Christmas Kettle Campaign would not be able to operate. And without this crucial fundraising initiative, the thousands of people we help at Christmas time and year-round would be left without hope.

With over 50 kettle locations in London placed in strategic locations throughout the city for 24 days, volunteers stand at the kettle to meet, greet and say thank you to shoppers. Individuals, businesses, service groups and churches stand at the kettle for 2 to 3 hours.

Here are just a few stories of the many volunteers who make the Kettle Campaign a success.

LSTAR

The London and St Thomas realtors have manned every kettle on Realtors Day across London for 4 years (you may need to verify this) and now most kettles across St Thomas as well.

I feel so proud to work in my industry because our realtors, my colleagues really are exceptionally generous with their time/money/talents and the Kettle Campaign affords another great opportunity for us to give back to our own communities.

We love that the money raised by the Salvation Army kettles stays in our cities and helps London/St. Thomas’s most marginalized people through their wide range of social service programs.

It is a great experience going as a whole, connecting in the community and seeing how generous the people of London and St Thomas are. Many of the realtors bring their children with them to instil in them the same caring attitude. One of the nice things with agents supporting The Army is their wide range of community supports. As a diversified group some agents may want to support homelessness or victims of mental health / addiction or disabled children or Alzheimer’s patients and with The Army our efforts support all of these areas and more.  We feel like The Salvation Army gives us a chance to make a difference in our community.
Chalmers Presbyterian Church

For around 30 years Chalmers Presbyterian Church has been blessed to cover all of the volunteer hours of the one of the White Oaks Mall kettles. In 2014 over 70 different members of our congregation gave selflessly of their time. We do it knowing that the Salvation Army kettles support the same mission that we have with our church: Sharing the love of Christ by being an example of service to others.

Each year the London community inspires us with its generosity!  Our kettle consistently raises over $10,000 annually!

The story our volunteers remember the most are the few times that people have put money into the kettle and have told us … “Years ago, I was recipient of Salvation Army generosity. Now I can give back.”

Generosity! It’s contagious!

Peggy Lawlor

Hillcrest Community Church member Peggy Lawlor has been standing at the kettle for over 20 years. Along with her husband Ed, she completed over 50 shifts this last year. “We do it because we receive so much joy knowing the happiness it brings to so many people”, says Peggy.  “It affords people dignity and allows them to provide food and clothing for their families. We are the lucky ones to be able to do this to help others”.

Peggy also says they have heard many stories from shoppers stopping by the kettles about how The Salvation Army has helped them or their loved ones.