Lawrence Salvation Army bell ringers generate thousands of dollars but have to fight to avoid blending into the holiday backdrop
By Dan Curry
Special to Kansan
This is why Mable Riley is the best Salvation Army bell ringer in Lawrence:
Inside the Dillons at 4701 W. 6th St. there will be the smell of piled bananas, of celery, there will be the sound of the whirring rubber mat, of a clerk shaking out a paper sack. The temperature and humidity won't change. Time hardly passes.
Step through the sliding doors, though, and there beside the Pepsi machine, under the cold yellow lights, to the left of the firewood for sale, ringing her bells, singing her made-up songs, is Mable Riley and her red kettle.
Again and again, she chants her mantra: "Have a merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Have a merry Christmas and a happy New Year. God loves ya. God loves ya."
She wears a hooded sweatshirt. She holds a tiny tea cup in a hooked finger.
"I jump up and down and act crazy," Riley says, her breath in blue clouds. "I can't stand still. I can't get cold. I dance around. I shake the bells. I switch up."
People call Riley "The Boogie-Woogie Lady."
Not another Christmas ornament
Riley collects twice as many donations as the other 29 bell-ringers in Lawrence in half the time, says Capt. Sharon Young, the director of the Lawrence Salvation Army. The group could use more like her.
But while the Salvation Army's widespread visibility and golden-hearted reputation serves it well, the bell ringers' solid integration into Christmas tradition can hamper their ability to stand out among rampant Yuletide fanfare.
In the days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the Lawrence Salvation Army hopes to collect $145,000 to fund its religious denomination and its humanitarian services, Young said. It is the Salvation Army's primary source of revenue, accounting for at least a third of its operating costs.
Even the anticipation of a holiday inspires a complete and immediate revolution in decor. Come Halloween, cardboard witches soar into vogue. Come Thanksgiving, cardboard turkeys take up roost. For Christmas, the faux evergreen will wind along the window sills.
in this environment, a Salvation Army bell ringer has one directive:
Don't become another Christmas ornament.
"Ring the bell gently," urges the Salvation Army bell-ringer instruction pamphlet, "but be creative."
A ball ringer stands watch in front of one of the 30 Salvation Army holiday collection kettles in Lawrence. An instruction pamphlet urges ball ringers to "rina the ball candy but be creative." Contributed photo
'The scraggly ole Santa'
For many people, the bell-ringing gets annoying, and bell ringers who aren't engaged in their occupation are disheartening.
"Sometimes there are high school students that ring the bells outside the grocery store where I work, and they act like they don't even care," said Carrie Rupp, Overland Park freshman. "I normally avoid them."
"There is nothing worse than trying to conduct a conversation while having a nonexperienced bell ringer trying to get your attention by being obnoxious," Williams said. "He or she needs to be a steady, firm ringer."
Jacob Williams, Topeka freshman, said that he needed more than bell-ringing to make him donate — the bell ringers needed to have style.
"For me to give money," he adds, "they got to have moxie!"
Gerry Cain, assistant professor of strategic communications, said that the Salvation Army's name recognition was admirable but that more innovation might be in order.
"What materialistic American doesn't recognize the significance of
the scraggly ole' Santa, standing next to that bright red kettle-in-a-tripod, ringing that annoying — but somehow heartening — bell?" Cain said. "It brings tears to the eyes of real shoppers."
But Cain said that the Salvation Army might want to try a few new strategies, such as finding better-looking Santas or an interactive promotion with an retro theme song, such as Anita Ward's "You Can Ring My Bell."
On a more serious note, Cain suggested the Salvation Army encourage their bell ringers to target children.
"Kids love to give," Cain said. "Especially when it's not their own money."
Aiming for children
Targeting children, however, is something the bell ringers are already doing.
As a rule, Young would bring her daughter with her when she used to ring the bells in Battle Creek, Mich.
"I took a child with me because a child always draws them in," Young said.
said:
"It's kind of deceitful," she said. "It's kind of a trick, but you draw the children to the kettle, and then the kids will go to their mothers and say, 'Let's give something,' and then they do."
The Salvation Army bell-ringer instruction pamphlet advises, "Talk to the children and let them ring the bell. These things will encourage people to contribute to this important fund-raising effort."
Personal appearance and attitude are also important factors in effective fund-raising. Young said.
The Salvation Army doesn't look for individuals who will look shabby and inspire sympathy. Young said.
"We want people who look interested," Young said. "We tell them not to stand there slumped with their hands in their pockets. Their posture should be straight. They're well-groomed. Granted, some of ours aren't really well-groomed, but we give them a chance."
More important to Young is attitude, she said, and this was where she mentioned the Boogie-Woogle Lady.
"She just gives the appearance that she loves what she's doing." Young said. "She's always bubbly, always up."
Stopping and dancing
kney is singing and ringing while the wind blows leaves and litter across the parking lot.
Two college-aged hipsters approach from the parking lot, one a narrow-shouldered boy in a black turtleneck, the other wearing heavy black frames on his nose. Otherwise, they are identical.
"You two going to sing and dance with me?" she asks.
"I said, are you going to sing the 'Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Boogle Woogie'?"
"Maybe later," one says. They step through the sliding doors.
"Maye later," one says. "They step
later." Be dead and gone later!" Riley shouts. "I'll be stretched out
and dead."
On their way out, the two men don't acknowledge Riley But other people do, and her kettle grows heavy.
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