The Salvation Army started its red kettle bell ringing in Levelland this week, collecting funds to support people in the local community.
Robyn Reaves, going on her fifth year with the board of Levelland’s Salvation Army, said the 2024 red kettle campaign has been going very well, and almost every one-hour volunteering time slot has been filled.
According to The Salvation Army website, the red kettle ringing began during the holiday season of 1891 as a way to fund free Christmas dinners.
Nowadays, the organization helps over 4 million people nationwide during the holiday season, the history read.
For The Salvation Army in Levelland, they set a goal every year the kettles come out and have consistently reached it, Reaves said.
“And that comes from loose change and dollar bills that people in our community give back,” she said, “but then we also have organizations that donate to our red kettle campaign as well.”
The board member explained that of those collected funds, 90% is kept right in Hockley County and used to give back to community members as needed.
Some of the funds are used for local financial assistance, she said. The Salvation Army assists people with residential demands like electricity or other monthly bills, as well as food and groceries.
However, the organization also supports other local programs and activities with the money.
Reaves said red kettle money was used to help create the Salvation Army Family Store on Avenue H, and goes toward providing Christmas gifts to families through the help of Love Levelland.
Efforts in outside counties and cities have also found some of their funding with Levelland’s Christmas-time campaign.
Some of the money is used to help people who are stuck in Levelland get transportation fare and resources, Reaves said. It also goes toward a Survive the Night program, which helps with providing people blankets and moving them into Lubbock shelters in freezing cold temperatures.
The initiatives aren’t exclusive to the holiday season, either, as funding is put into sending children from an underserved population to summer camp in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
“To me, it’s something I can include my family in and teach my children that it’s always important to give back to your community,” she said.
According to Levelland’s Salvation Army Facebook, volunteers began standing outside of the city’s Walmart and United Supermarket on Dec. 2, ringing their bells next to the red hanging kettles in the evening.
“You’ll see family members, you’ll see service organizations, you’ll see business members and just families out that want to give back to our community,” she said.
The board member said she volunteers every year when the red kettles pop up in Levelland, bringing her children along to help ring the bells.
Even when Reaves told her family she was heading out to volunteer, about to leave her son to help strip cotton with his father, the son chose to come along with Reaves to do his “favorite thing”.
“And they’ve been doing – they’re young teenagers now – and they’ve been doing it since they were probably seven and eight,” she said.
Reaves said the red kettle campaign is a neat way to teach your kids and yourself a reminder that everybody in the community needs something.
“And everybody in our community, no matter your financial status or your economic situation or where you work or what you do or who you are or if you go to church or don’t go to church,” she said, “there’s always a place to give back.”
The Salvation Army, Reaves said, follows a mission statement of “preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to help people in need without discrimination.”
The board of about 15 people for the Levelland organization try to make decisions with the words at the forefront of their mind.
“So, our organization – it doesn’t matter who you are, what your background is, what your future looks like – it’s the need we can serve you now without question,” she said.
Reaves said the organization wants to thank the community, first and foremost, as they continue their red kettle campaign this holiday season.
“Because we have so many of our volunteers are repeat volunteers that come and ring with us every year,” she said. “And as we have this last week of the kettle campaign, we’d love to fill up our last spot and even include some new people.”
As families join them to ring the bells in Levelland, she said she would love to see them continue to volunteer together as their children get older and keep being a part of what the organization is helping to do: realizing they’re all a part of something bigger than themselves.
She said when the organization hopefully meets their $10,000 goal, they can continue to support the summer camp and the family store, serving more people in the process. She thinks in the economy, more people have more needs than what is realized.
“We’re a part of something that we can all do good right where we are,” Reaves said. “We don’t have to go off and do good somewhere else, we have the ability to do that here as well.”
According to Levelland’s Salvation Army Facebook, volunteers will be at the red kettles Dec. 9-12 from 4-7 p.m. at the Levelland Walmart and United Supermarkets.
For people interested in volunteering, contact Robyn Reaves at 806-638-9998, LaGayle Stephenson or the other kettle chairs.
“We have a few vacancies left, and we would love to fill those spots,” Reaves said.