This morning I spent a few hours manning the Kettle with the Salvation Army Christmas Kettle Campaign! My friend Pam is actually working with the Salvation Army helping co-ordinate the campaign this year so that’s kind of how I ended up doing it.
I think I would have tried to do it without Pam because as I’ve said in previous posts, I have this urge to help and give back to my community but I never do — so I feel I would have felt compelled enough to do it this holiday season anyway, it just so happened that Pam needed more volunteers and was easily able to slot me in!
My station was at the Tim Hortons entrance at the west-end Walmart. I think it was a really good location. I had a bunch of people come through and I think if I had kept better track then I’d say there was between 30-40 people who stopped and dropped money into the kettle! I don’t know how much money came in during my shift but I was really amazed by how many people gave! From coins to $20 bills, I beamed everytime someone approached. I also was armed with mini candycanes to hand out to those who donated (and some who didn’t but were still eyeing the candycanes, lol).
There was a man who put in $20 then came back a second later and said he hadn’t given much this season so he put in another $20! There was another man who said last week when he went to Walmart there were a bunch of girl guides running around trying to sell chocolates to customers and he thought it was silly they were allowed to do that but the Salvation Army wasn’t able to put their kettle in the store. So he told me he went home and wrote a complaint email about it and when he walked into the store that morning and saw me and the Salvation Army kettle- he was so overjoyed that his complaining worked! ( I didn’t have the heart to tell him it probably wasn’t his email that made the change since Salvation Army Kettles all across the country were in Walmart today, lol). There were a few ladies who emptied their entire change purses into the kettle and I even had a little boy come up and literally dig into his pockets saying he wanted to donate something and ended up only having a penny in his pocket. He said ‘I’m sorry, this is all I have but I really want to give you something’ and I said ‘Every penny counts! :D THANK YOU!’ and gave him a candy cane. Hehe.
Overall, while it was only three hours of my time, I still felt that I had made a positive impact and I am really happy I did it! I like spreading #ChristmasCheer :) I hope I find more community/charity-related things I can help with in 2011. Also, added Christmas Spirit Bonus: Today Walmart Canada is matching all donations made at the kettles on their locations all across the country!
Linda
