Red kettles out in Fox Cities

APPLETON - It might only be the first week in November, but the Fox Cities Salvation Army has some work to do if they want to break last year's Christmas season record of $1 million.

“This year we're looking to raise about 1.2 million dollars," said Robb Waugus, Development Director of the Salvation Army of the Fox Cities.

About $500,000 of that is expected from a match day with Thrivent Financial, where the Salvation Army also broke a national one day record last year.

Whenever a red kettle has a volunteer ringing a bell, the Salvation Army says it makes about four times as much money as if there weren't a volunteer.

“Usually a kettle that doesn't have a bell ringer, it's just a Christmas ornament," said Waugus.

That's why the Salvation Army needs roughly 10,000 volunteers from the Fox Cities to help collect donations from now until Christmas Eve. About a third of those spots have been filled so far. Mike Nickolas never volunteered for this before, but thought it was a good time to help out the community.

"I just heard about it through friends,” said Nickolas. “A couple of their parents do it and they were doing a little bit this year, so I figured I'd try it out once."

"We like to get out and help with whoever we can,” said Sarah Lamers, helping out through the Freedom High School National Honor Society. “It's fun to do too."

Also this year, people can help out from home, with online kettles.

“They can set up their own web page, they can have it on their social networking site, on their MySpace, their Facebook, and they'll be able to ring bells in a cyber environment."

As for the record, those ringing the bells say records are made to be broken.