Salvation Army of Plattsburgh needs bell ringers for Kettle Campaign

Robin Caudell, The Press-Republican, Plattsburgh, N.Y.
·3 min read

Nov. 24—PLATTSBURGH — Salvation Army of Plattsburgh Majors Francisco and Wanda Rivera are in desperate need of bell ringers for the organization's annual Kettle Campaign.

"We started on Nov. 13 with Price Chopper, but now all the stores that we can do kettles are open already, and I need bell ringers," Wanda Rivera said.

"I need people who can donate one hour, two hours, three hours. We are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at those five stores. We have Sam's. We have Price Chopper. We have Walmart, two doors. We have the mall, and we have Hobby Lobby.

"Right now, we need bell ringers, a lot of people who can donate hours to ring the bell for our fundraising, the most important fundraising in the United States for the Salvation Army. That's how we have the money to keep the building open and keep the programs running."

LITTLE COUNTER KETTLES

The campaign goal is $75,000.

"We need people who can have little counter kettles," she said.

"People from like restaurants or little dollar stores like a Dollar General, Dollar Tree, pharmacies, Walgreen's. People who have little store businesses, they can have a little counter kettles that they can have in their own place.

"As soon as they fill it, they can call me and I pick it up and I drop it off. We can do that, too. We get money there, too. Also monetary donations, we are very appreciative of that because if you don't want to do kettles you can put a check in those kettles and you can bring a check here in the building in our offices.

"And then also banks, churches, can do that, too."

TOY COLLECTION

The Salvation Army also brings holiday cheer with Angel Tree tags, which collect toys for community kids.

"We have 200 kids we are serving to give them a toy for Christmas," Wanda Rivera said.

"They can go to the Walmart registry and tag the Angel Tree. They can buy it from the registry, but we also have Angel tags in Lenny's. We have Angel tags in Walmart and the two Christmas trees that we have there.

"Adirondack Bank has a Christmas tree with Angel tags, too, that they can go and get an Angel tag and buy the gift and bring it to the place where they got the Angel tag. They call us to get the toys for the kids."

The week of Dec. 13 through 18, all the toys will be at the Salvation Army located at 4804 South Catherine St. in Plattsburgh.

"As soon as we receive them, we give it out to the community, the people who have signed up already," she said.

"They were signing up since October to get toys for the kids.

The Riveras, new to the Salvation Army in Plattsburgh, relocated from St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands five months ago.

"We are so blessed to be here," she said.

"Before that, we were in Corning for five years. Virgin Islands, we were for three, and Geneva, New York, we were for five, and two years in Buffalo. Originally, we are from Puerto Rico, but we met at Salvation Army in Buffalo. That is our home."

Email: rcaudell@pressrepublican.com

Twitter@RobinCaudell