Slow night at the kettle drive
One of my favorite holiday traditions has been ringing bells for the Salvation Army’s kettle drive. Watching people helping others in need always warms my heart and gets me into the Christmas spirit.
So, I bundled up recently and went to a local outlet where Herald-Standard employees had been ringing the bells all day. I relieved a fellow employee and started ringing away.
After about 15 minutes, I noticed something. Only one person had donated any money. I thought that was a little odd because donations were usually much more plentiful that that.
There were some periods when two of three people donated money right after each other, but they were followed by lengthy dry spells. Within half an hour, I had received nine donations. That seemed to be far below from I had received in the past, but I thought maybe it was a fluke and the donations would start flowing in the next half hour. I thought I could certainly get at least 20 donations.
Again there were a few flurries of donations but they were followed by some long dry spells. Finally, when my hour was up, I only counted 19 donations. The Salvation Army representative who came to pick up the kettle shook his head in disbelief when I told him my sorry tale. I’m sure they’ll take anything they can get, but figuring each donor probably gave a buck, that was only $20 for the entire hour. That sure wasn’t going to stretch far with the Salvation Army’s busiest time of the year coming up.
Now this was the first time that I had ever counted donations, so it’s possible that maybe 19 wasn’t all that bad. I usually ring with other volunteers too, so it’s also possible that I had more time to ponder the dearth of donors, making it seem worse than it really was.
It was at night and I had usually rang the bells earlier in the day so maybe that was a factor.
It was also extremely cold weather that night, so maybe people were in a hurry trying to get in the store and back into their cars as quickly as possible.
I couldn’t help but note, though, that the parking lot was full and there were tons of people whizzing by me left and right. I did see some people who looked like they needed help, but there were certainly others who looked like the cat’s meow, walking out with a full cart of assorted stuff. The bottom line was that an overwhelming number of people either ignored me like I was invisible or avoided me like I had the plague.
One elderly gentleman walked up to me, wished me a Merry Christmas, and said “Praise the Lord.” I thought sure he would donate something, but he never stopped on his way inside the store.
Sure I had seem this type of behavior before while ringing bells but never of this magnitude. It wasn’t that people were hostile, it was just like they didn’t care. And that got me to thinking. I couldn’t help but reflect on the Give-A-Christmas we run in conjunction with the Salvation Army and how the numbers have been down for the past couple of years.
It’s a little disconcerting because the people in our area have always been so generous and so giving towards all sorts of charities. I’ve always marveled at how people in our area who probably don’t have a lot of money themselves have reached out to help fellow residents in their time of need. Over my 34 years at the Herald-Standard we’ve done countless stories about the good-hearted people in our area.
I’m hoping this was just some sort of off night, but I couldn’t help but think of all those people just walking by while I was ringing those bells. There was just a cold look on their faces, and it wasn’t from the weather. Is this some sort of new attitude? Are people not so interested in helping others these days? I sure hope not. If anything, the poor probably need our help now more than ever. In the end, it’s up to us to help each other, especially at this time of the year. If we don’t, who will?
Mark O’Keefe is the editorial page editor of the Herald-Standard. He can be reached by email at mokeefe@heraldstandard.com, by regular mail at 8 Church St., Uniontown, Pa., 15401, or by phone at 724-439-7569.