Red kettle campaigns winding down

HOWARD - The sound of bell ringing is about to come to a halt.

With volunteers ringing bells for barely half the available shifts throughout the area, there is concern this year's donations will not be enough for the six chapters to meet their goals.

In Brown County, Salvation Army officials don't have an up to date total for donations, but they say they are about two percent behind last year's pace.

Last year's red kettle campaign in Brown County failed to reach its $1.1 million goal. This year’s goal is $1.2 million.

For 10 years, David Jaegers has been taking off work to man the red kettle outside Fleet Farm in Howard.

“I take vacation from the railroad for five weeks and I ring the bell,” said Jaegers.

Jaegers' station is outdoors. He doesn't mind being out in the winter elements, but things aren't as good at his kettle on days like Monday.

“Today is kind of a little bit slow because of the weather again, Christmas Eve,” said Jaegers.

“Today we're struggling,” said Maj. Don Kincaid of The Salvation Army of Brown County. “We're aware that there's several locations that unfortunately have no bell ringers.”

Salvation Army officials say a manned red kettle usually takes in more than $60 per hour. They say unmanned kettles bring in only about $2 per hour.

“We never have enough volunteers,” said Kincaid.

“I know what it would be like and you know what it'd be like,” said Jaegers. “People just don't put it in if nobody is here.”

Bad weather days also hurt donation totals, especially ones like last Thursday when Blizzard Brianna took over a prime shopping day.

“You can't make those donations up,” said Kincaid. “We lost that day.”

“People don't come in the bad weather, or if they come, they run right in the store and run right out,” said Jaegers.

While donations are down, with help from volunteers like Jaegers, Salvation Army officials and volunteers are still confident they can reach their goal before bell ringing ends on Thursday.

“I can tell from the bucket,” said Jaegers. “I've had more full buckets this year than last year. I'll fill the bucket up while I'm here.”

If the red kettle campaign doesn't meet its goal, Salvation Army officials say they'll have to look at their budget to make sure the organization can still fulfill all of its programs for the coming year.