Every winter for almost a decade, Van Dodd has volunteered as a Salvation Army bell ringer, wishing a Merry Christmas to passersby — whether or not they pause to drop loose change or a dollar bill or two into his iconic red kettle.
Many pass on by, perhaps offering a furtive nod; others ignore his holiday cheer altogether.
Then, Dodd says, there are those brief, precious moments when he can engage a mother, a father and kids in an upbeat conversation. Parents drop money in the pot, leaving with a smile and their youngsters clutching candy canes.
“I’m a joyful kind of person. I kind of make people come off their shelf, try to brighten up their day,” Dodd says. “I’ve been ringing the [red kettle] bell for nine years now. When I relocated here from Indiana for my job in October last year [2020], I went right over to the Salvation Army office to volunteer again.”
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Salvation Army bell ringer Van Dodd helps Siennna Froerer put some change in the red kettle at a shopping center on Parleys Way on Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2021.
Dodd, a 58-year-old father of three grown children, was assigned a spot in front of the Walmart at 2705 E. Parleys Way in Salt Lake City, the same bell-ringing station he returned to this December. He acknowledges with a sigh that in an increasingly cashless society, the clinking of coins and the rustle of greenbacks going into his kettle have been less frequent this year.
“The spirit of giving just isn’t the same,” he says. “People are in so much of a rush, so busy, with everything on their minds about COVID, whether [it is safe] to stop and give. ... Sometimes, if I just stand back from the kettle, then people might come and give something.”
Nationally, the Red Kettle campaign has seen its contributions first slip from a record $146.6 million in 2015 to $142.7 million in 2018 and then plunge to $126 million in 2019. It grew worse as the coronavirus took hold in 2020, with Red Kettle donations tumbling to $118.9 million.
Capt. Rob Lawler, officer in charge of Salt Lake City’s Salvation Army Corps, says Red Kettle donations here sank from $329,000 in 2018 to $211,000 in 2019 and barely $100,000 last year.
The pandemic also has made recruiting bell ringers — whether volunteer or paid as temporary seasonal workers — a painful task. From about 70 Red Kettle workers in 2018, Lawler could count on 20 or so on any given day this past week, the midpoint of the 2021 holiday campaign.
“Our biggest need right now is volunteers,” Lawler says. “At this point, we have stores that have not had a bell ringer at all.” (Those interested are urged to visit the volunteer website.)
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Salvation Army bell ringer Van Dodd waves at customers at a shopping center on Parleys Way on Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2021.
The ongoing pandemic’s fears of infection, health-related restrictions on gatherings and businesses, associated economic woes, and lack of volunteers have been bad enough — but a longer-term factor has been the accelerating societal movement away from cash toward digital transactions.
Though the Salvation Army has experimented for the past several years with providing cashless options at its Red Kettle sites, alternatives such as Google Pay, Apple Pay, PayPal or Venmo have not come close to making up for the decrease in real currency.
Exact amounts for those in-person digital payments to bell ringers are hard to gauge, since those dollars are included with online donations tallied by the nonprofit’s “Virtual Red Kettle” application. (As of Wednesday night, the Salt Lake City site had raised barely $14,000 through that option, far short of its $35,000 online fundraising goal).
“Cash is still our primary way,” Lawler says. “For example, when I took a shift at a kettle for an hour and a half last week, maybe three people took the time to [scan in electronic donations].”
Even so, he sees no time soon when the physical red kettles and bell ringers will not be a part of the Christmas shopping experience.
“It’s tradition,” Lawler says of the charity’s 130-year-old Red Kettle program. “You see it in the movies, on TV. It’s who we are to a lot of people. Christmas wouldn’t be the same without the red kettle in front of the stores where they shop.”
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Salvation Army bell ringer Van Dodd thanks a woman as she puts some money in the red kettle at a shopping center on Parleys Way on Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2021.
Dodd, braving the cold to ring in the holidays for yet another year, agrees wholeheartedly. He, too, has fond memories going back to childhood of the Salvation Army and its bell ringers.
“Giving is what my mom always stressed to me, to give back when I got to a certain age, to make as sure as I could that everybody who needed help got help,” Dodd recalls. “It was what she did all her life.”
So, in 2021, despite the challenges and diminished donations, he strives to keep his Christmas spirit, and that of others, alive.
“It’s been a rough couple of years, so this year means trying to get back to more regular activities,” Dodd says. “We need this new year to start off well, and at Christmas everyone can have a happy one, if you help them — and everyone seems to need help.”
