By Eileen Moon
The bells will be ringing around the Two River area this Friday as the Salvation Army begins its annual Red Kettle campaign, continuing a tradition that’s been going on for well over a hundred years.
Established by Englishman William Booth, a Methodist minister, in 1865, the Salvation Army is founded on the principle of Christianity through service. Booth believed responding to the physical needs of those suffering from poverty, addiction and other bad circumstances was the way to preach the Gospel.
From its small beginnings in London, the Salvation Army has grown into an international organization with ministries throughout the world.
“We are primarily a church,” said Felipe Concha, who oversees the Red Bank chapter of the Salvation Army. “Our mission is to preach the Gospel to everybody without discrimination. This is how the Salvation Army started and this is how we are intentionally focused on our social services. Spirituality is fundamental for us. Everything we do is based on the love of God.”
Wherever they are, Salvation Army workers engage in providing shelter, food and material assistance to those in need, relying on donations from its members and the public to fund their mission.
Salvation Army workers have been ringing bells to attract donations since 1900, when Amelia Kunkel, a 16-year-old Salvation Army worker feeling ignored as she stood beside her donation kettle on a cold New York City street, had the idea to buy a small bell to ring. The 10-cent bell she bought at Woolworth’s changed everything – and soon the tinkling of Salvation Army bells became one of the treasured sounds of the holiday season.
In 2015, bell ringers from the Salvation Army and corporate partners raised nearly $150 million through the Red Kettle campaign, with all donations going to support the communities in which the money was collected.
The organization is always in need of bell ringers during the holiday season and individuals, families and businesses can sign up for a one-time, two-hour shift, or a few more, during Red Kettle season, which runs from Nov. 25 until noon Christmas Eve.
Because of a shortage of volunteers in recent years, the Salvation Army hires people to ring bells as well, offering its seasonal workers $14 an hour. But volunteer bell ringers help the Salvation Army reduce costs and direct more of resources to helping in the community.
Members of the Red Bank Rotary have been ringing bells for the Salvation Army for many years, said Katy McAdoo, local Rotary president. While it’s not the only thing the Rotary does in partnership with the Salvation Army, it is one of the most treasured.
“We take the weekend before Christmas,” she said. “Thursday, Friday and Saturday. We do two-hour shifts because it can be cold.”
Usually, two Rotary members share a shift so that “one can ring, and one can chat with people,” she said. Often, it’s a family affair, with members bringing kids and grandkids along and “modeling by example.”
“Of all the things Rotary does, we feel that giving that gift of time and being part of the tradition of the Red Kettle program, being part of the community, is special,” McAdoo said.
This year, Rotary members will be stationed at Monmouth Street near the location of the former Cheese Cave store and outside Charles Schwab on Broad Street.
Salvation Army bell ringers will also be stationed outside local Stop and Shop and ShopRite supermarkets and other popular destinations for holiday shoppers from now until Christmas Eve, Concha said.
Sometimes, the bell ringing is enhanced with a little music. Concha plays the tuba, which he always brings along when he’s presiding over the Red Kettle. “I always have a real good time doing that,” he said.
A native of Chile, Concha was raised in a Salvation Army family, spending six years in Bolivia as a child when his parents, both majors in the Salvation Army, were stationed there.
The Salvation Army has always believed in the power of music to carry the organization’s spiritual message, Concha noted. “We believe music and the arts are a great tool of development,” he said. “It allows (kids) to see themselves as part of a community and to see the world in a different way, beyond their four walls,” he continued.
Having music lessons from an early age brought opportunities Concha would not have had otherwise. “I got the opportunity to travel all over the world,” he said. “Music and the arts are a unifying language.”
He came to the United States 15 years ago for pastoral studies, serving as an assistant devotional music director in White Plains, New York, before he and his wife Annabel do Santos became leaders in the Red Bank Salvation Army Corps.
In the years since, Concha and do Santos have and housing assistance which they work to address in collaboration with other community organizations.
“We are part of a whole coalition in Red Bank,” Concha said. When a client has a need that the Salvation Army is unable to address, the staff works to connect them with an organization that can help. “We call it ‘warm referrals,’ ” he said. “We don’t just give them a number to call. We try to advocate for them.”
Red Kettle donations help provide some 250 local families with the food and toys that make holiday memories. More than that, Concha noted, it makes the people they serve feel cared about.
But the dollars that shoppers drop into the Red Kettle help year-round, making it possible for the local charity to provide services that include family support, dance and music lessons for some 30 local children, holiday theater productions, women’s support groups, crisis assistance, spiritual support and the invaluable assurance that whatever challenge they are facing, they are not facing it alone.
Last Monday, when temperatures dropped to the 20s, the Salvation Army was out on the streets in Red Bank with its mobile food truck, working with local police, the Mental Health Association, Pilgrim Baptist Church, JBJ Soul Kitchen and other local partners to bring a hot breakfast to people who are without shelter and connect them to the social services they need.
The money raised by a volunteer bell ringer during a two-hour shift at the Red Kettle may help bring those people in from the cold.
To volunteer as a bell ringer or help the local Salvation Army with its year-round need for volunteers, contact the agency at 732-747-1626 or email Felipe Concha at felipe.concha@use.salvationarmy.org.
The article originally appeared in the November 24 – 30, 2022 print edition of The Two River Times.
