Never Miss a Chance to Do the Most Good
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Never Miss a Chance to Do the Most Good
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the salvation army's red kettles
Help us celebrate Christmas with The Salvation Army's famous Red Kettles. Greet shoppers as they fill the kettles this season with their contributions to help our most needy. Kettles are located at grocery and retail stores throughout the area, and we can work with you to find the best location for you. Volunteering 2 to 4 hours of your time can change lives!
All money raised in the Red Kettles goes to the local community. Local Salvation Army units raise funds to support their local services. There is no national fund raising in The Salvation Army. Funds raised in each community are dedicated to best serve the people in that community who are recovering from many kinds of personal disasters.
The bell ringing season starts November 16th and runs through Christmas Eve, when the Red Kettles are packed away for the season. Volunteers are the difference between an empty kettle and one that raises about $30 per hour - enough to provide a family with two bags of groceries, or shelter an individual for a night.
history of the red kettle
In December of 1891, Captain Joseph McFee of The Salvation Army in San Francisco, Calif., was stumped. He wanted to provide a Christmas dinner for 1,000 poor people, but had no way to pay for it. Then, an idea. He thought back to when he was as a sailor in Liverpool, England, where on the docks of the city's waterfront he remembered seeing a large pot into which charitable donations could be thrown.
The next day, McFee secured permission to place a brass urn at the Oakland ferry landing. Beside the pot, he placed a sign that read, "Keep the Pot Boiling." Soon, he had all the money he needed to fund the Christmas dinner.
Two years later, McFee's fundraising idea had expanded to 30 kettle locations on the West Coast. He'd grown the program with help from two young Salvation Army officers named William A. McIntyre and N.J. Lewis.Soon after Christmas 1895, McIntyre and Lewis were transferred to the East Coast. They took with them the idea of a Christmas kettle.
McIntyre was stationed in Boston. During the 1897 Christmas season, he, his wife and sister set up three kettles in the heart of the city. Their effort, combined with others on the West Coast and elsewhere, resulted in 150,000 Christmas dinners for the poor, nationwide.
Red kettles spread to the Big Apple, where the New York World newspaper hailed them as the newest and most novel device for collecting money. In 1901, kettle donations in New York City funded a massive sit-down Christmas dinner at Madison Square Garden. The meal became a tradition for many years.
The rest, as they say, is history. Captain McFee's idea launched a tradition that has spread not only throughout the United States, but across the world. Although red kettles are not found in all of the 126 countries The Salvation Army serves in, they can still be found in such distant lands as Korea, Japan, Chile, and many European countries.
Today in the U.S., The Salvation Army assists more than four-and-a-half million people during the Thanksgiving and Christmas time periods.
