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Volunteers wanted
Heather Steverson, business administrator for the Salvation Army in Florence, is ready to hand out the signs, bells and the iconic red buckets for volunteers. Funds raised across the state by the annual campaign go to assist more than 175,000 people. To register as a bell ringer in your area, visit redkettlevolunteer.org.
Photo by Milton Morris
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Holiday tradition
Volunteer Mark Shuler has been a holiday fixture outside Sam’s Club in Florence for more than a decade. “At first, it was just something to do for the holidays,” he says. “But, I fell in love with it and have been doing it ever since.”
Photo by Milton Morris
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Collecting donations and stories
Florence lawyer and Salvation Army advisory board member Jim Peterson has collected donations since 1981. “It is really fun watching the people and the benefit they get knowing that they are contributing to something that is very meaningful,” he says.
Photo by Milton Morris
Even at her tender age, 12-year-old Malena Harrell knows that the money she donates to the Salvation Army will somehow help one of her fellow citizens work through a rough patch in his or her life.
Collecting spare change throughout the year, Malena waits until the Christmas holidays and then personally delivers her savings to Mark Shuler, one of the many volunteers throughout South Carolina who collect money for the legendary organization dedicated to helping the poor and needy.
Malena is with her father, Hewitt Harrell, on a chilly Friday morning when she spots Shuler in front of Sam’s Club in Florence, sitting in his wheelchair next to one of the iconic red kettles. The Darlington Middle School student throws her arms around Shuler’s neck and gives him a big hug. Then, she empties a plastic water bottle filled with coins into the kettle. It takes a while, because there are so many coins and the slot in the kettle is so narrow. Finally, with the last of her savings deposited, she gives Shuler one final hug before she and her father head for home.
“We see other bell ringers around town,” says Hewitt Harrell, “but, she will insist that we must bring her donation to Mark.”
Helping others
For more than a decade, Shuler, 45, has been a holiday fixture outside the Florence retail warehouse. He takes up his post the day after Thanksgiving and turns in his bell, red apron and kettle on Christmas Eve.
“I got involved with the Salvation Army through the vocational rehabilitation center about 20 years ago,” says Shuler, who was born with cerebral palsy. “At first, it was just something to do for the holidays. But, I fell in love with it and have been doing it ever since.”
It is the people he meets, like Malena and her father, Shuler says, who keep him coming back to ring the holiday bell year after year. Others pause to share stories of how the Salvation Army once helped them or a loved one during a time of need. Sometimes, he just listens to people living through hard times who simply need a sympathetic ear.
“There are so many different people and so many different stories,” Shuler says. “Some need their bills paid or need help because they got burned out of their house. Maybe they are out of work or, especially at this time of year, just need toys for their kids.”
A history of giving
The Salvation Army was founded in London in 1865 by William Booth, a Methodist minister whose full head of swept-back, white hair and flowing beard gave him the appearance of a biblical prophet. He was born in Nottingham, and today, if you were to visit the red-brick home at the place of his birth, you would see a life-sized statue of him, right hand raised, index finger pointing toward the heavens, his open mouth seeming to form a word of scripture as if caught in the middle of a sermon, almost certainly advocating for the poor.
Today, the Salvation Army operates in 128 countries around the world. In the United States alone, the organization maintains 7,500 centers that support soup kitchens, food pantries, shelters and family stores. And, it was in this country—in San Francisco, California, to be exact—that the tradition of the Salvation Army red kettle was born in 1891.
“A Salvation Army officer set up a crab pot at the Oakland ferry landing to collect money to feed people on Christmas,” says Shelley Henderson, the Salvation Army’s divisional director of communications for North and South Carolina. “Passersby would drop coins in the pot to help the poor, and that is how the red-kettle tradition started.”
In South Carolina, money raised through red-kettle donations and other fundraising efforts last year helped nearly 175,000 people.
“We served 650,000 meals, provided more than 55,000 nights of lodging, distributed 45,000 food boxes and gave 250,000 Christmas gifts to children,” Henderson says.
There are other programs, too, several of which—summer camps, Bible studies, after-school activities, leadership classes—are aimed at young people.
“We do a lot with youth, because we believe that every young person has great potential,” Henderson says. “We want to make sure they have a safe and positive place to go.”
A good cause
One of those young people is Tyree Thomas, a 17-year-old Marlboro County High School student who can often be found ringing a Salvation Army bell in front of the Walmart Supercenter in Bennettsville.
Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Thomas lived with his family just down the block from a Salvation Army center, and he spent a great deal of time there as a child.
“We would play basketball,” he recalls. “And they had a game room. There was always something to do.”
He attended Salvation Army church services, too, and when his family relocated to another house in D.C.—this one farther away from the Salvation Army—the organization would transport him and his six siblings to church.
Two years ago, Thomas and his family moved to Bennettsville. To keep busy, he stepped up his activities with the Salvation Army. Over the past two summers, for example, he has served as a youth counselor at the organization’s Camp Walter Johnson in Denton, North Carolina, where he works with children ages 7 through 17.
“He is such a wonderful leader and such a great, great young man,” says Heather Steverson, business administrator for the Salvation Army in Florence. “He is very humble and has a personality that is so giving.”
Steverson says she was especially comforted by Thomas’ presence as a youth counselor when she sent the youngest of her four children, 6-year-old Caleb, who is autistic, to the North Carolina summer camp.
“It is very hard for Caleb to reach out to anyone and make a connection,” Steverson says. “But, Tyree always encouraged him and welcomed him and saw him through his first year at camp. Knowing someone like Tyree was there, with his wonderful compassion and patience, was very comforting to me as a mom.”
Thomas began ringing the Salvation Army bell about a year ago, after he asked Steverson if there was any way he could serve during the Christmas season.
“I tried it out, and it was fun,” Thomas says. “I love helping people, and so there was no hesitation on my part to do this.”
Like other bell ringers, Thomas observes the different reactions shoppers have to the red-kettle campaign. Some avoid eye contact and step quickly into the store. Others pat their pockets and mumble apologies for not having any cash with them. Still others offer up stern looks as if the bell ringer has somehow unfairly intruded upon their lives. Thomas takes it all in stride, wishing everyone a Merry Christmas regardless of their reactions.
“When I was little, I liked to put coins in the kettle,” he says. “Now, I get the satisfaction of knowing that I’m helping someone, somewhere. I’m doing this for a good cause.”
Something meaningful
Some years ago, Florence lawyer Jim Peterson was ringing a Salvation Army bell outside a Florence Walmart when a woman walked past the kettle without making a donation and headed for her car. That happens all the time, and Peterson took no real notice—but, he did happen to see the woman stop in the parking lot and start digging through her purse for something.
“She came back to the kettle and dropped in several bills,” Peterson recalls. “I said, ‘Thank you so much, we appreciate the donation,’ and she started once more to walk to her car. But, she stopped again and turned back toward me.”
According to Peterson, the woman said: “I just want to tell you why I came back to make that donation. Five years ago, I was a single mom, I had a 10-year-old child and I had just been diagnosed with breast cancer. I had to quit my job, and I had all kinds of medical expenses and no idea how I was going to provide a Christmas for my child.”
The woman told Peterson that the Salvation Army had stepped in, providing holiday gifts for her young one and making Christmas a whole lot happier.
“I have been promising myself ever since then that, when I got back on my feet, I would donate something to the Salvation Army,” the woman told Peterson. “Well, I am sort of back on my feet now, and as I walked out into the parking lot today, I found myself thinking, ‘I can’t give a lot, but I can give something to help the Salvation Army do for someone else what they did for me.’”
Peterson, who since 1981 has been a bell ringer and a Salvation Army advisory board member, says the woman’s story brought tears to his eyes. The distinguished, silver-haired counselor—he is the attorney for the City of Florence—later enlisted members of his adult Sunday school class at Central Methodist Church to ring bells with him for the Salvation Army.
“My whole Sunday school class takes a day to come out here and ring bells,” Peterson says. “We always go to Sam’s Club. We ring the bell all day long and have a great time doing it.”
Every now and then, bell ringers encounter something so weird or humorous that it is not easily forgotten. Some years ago, for example, Peterson and his wife, Mincy, were ringing bells outside Sam’s Club in Florence when a man wearing a large coat exited the store and quickly walked past the red kettle.
Peterson recalls that although the man seemed to be in a hurry, he paused, turned around and stuffed a couple of dollars into the kettle before hurrying off.
“Moments later, these other people came rushing out of the store,” Peterson says, warming to the story. “They ran after the man in the coat and caught him.”
As the Sam’s Club security people frog-marched the fellow in the coat back into the store, Peterson learned that he had been spotted on security cameras filling his pockets with frozen steaks and lobster tails before hightailing it out of the store.
Shoplifters aside, Peterson says he is always amazed at the people who drop money into the red kettle, especially those who look like they just might be enduring their own hard times. “It is really fun watching the people and the benefit they get knowing that they are contributing to something that is very meaningful.”
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How you can help
To register as a bell ringer in your area, visit redkettlevolunteer.org.
For more information on the Salvation Army, visit salvationarmysouth.org or follow the Salvation Army at twitter.com/salarmysouth and facebook.com/SalArmySouth/.
