Akeysta Simmons works ringing the bell for the Salvation Army outside Walmart Supercenter in Aurora. She said "people aren’t giving as much this year." (David Sharos / The Beacon-News)
The worker shortage that continues to plague virtually every kind of business in the nation has also hurt nonprofits including the Salvation Army, whose annual Red Kettle Campaign is off to a struggling start.
Here in the Aurora area, the campaign kicked off before Thanksgiving on Nov. 19 and after just 10 days, those coordinating the annual collection effort said “we’re pretty far behind.”
“One of our challenges – and I think we’re in the same boat as a lot of organizations and businesses – is that bell ringers are hard to come by,” said Major Gabriela Rangel, 51, of the Aurora Salvation Army, who has worked with the Salvation Army for 15 years. “We only have 10 bell ringers, even though we have 34 spots that need to be filled.”
Aurora is not alone in having difficulty finding bell ringers. Captain Xavier Montenegro of the Salvation Army’s Metropolitan Division said donations and the number of bell ringers across the Chicago area are down this year compared to 2020, but he remains optimistic.
“It could possibly be where people are at themselves financially,” Montenegro said. “That might be impacting them, but I think the generosity is still there. … It might not be as much as they were able to do last year, but people are still being generous.”
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People can donate or volunteer through salarmychristmas.org, Montenegro said.
Over the past few years in Aurora, collection problems have been worsened by not having enough volunteers to fill positions and this year, Rangel said things aren’t any different.
“We have had to hire bell ringers in the past few years and even now paid bell ringers are hard to come by,” she said.
Akeysta Simmons of Aurora was being paid to work ringing a bell for the Salvation Army at Walmart Supercenter at 2900 Kirk Road in Aurora from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. on Monday, and said collections overall were light.
“I really don’t know why people aren’t giving as much this year,” she said. “People see the sign. If they don’t want to give you can’t force them.”
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Lawrence Romain of Aurora was working another door at the south end of the Walmart and said he has worked 15 years as a paid employee of the Salvation Army.
“A lot of the volunteers work just a few hours whereas we do this full-time – like eight hours a day, five days a week,” he said. “I love the Salvation Army and we do the most good. We help a lot of needy families and children.”
Romain said he wasn’t surprised donations were down “since a lot of people don’t carry cash anymore.”
“Collections go in waves,” he said. “Out of every 10 people that come in the store maybe one or two will put something into the kettle. There are dry spells where no one seems to be donating and then a whole bunch will put something in. It goes in spurts.”
Rangel said the collection totals “may also be affected by the economy as people are struggling with things being more expensive.”
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“I really can’t pinpoint exactly what is happening but I think it would be safe to say some people are a little insecure about their income but in terms of our totals, we are pretty far behind,” Rangel said 10 days into the collection.
Sadly, the numbers offered show 2021 hasn’t been a good year for collections so far and Rangel admits it will be nearly impossible to catch up in December.
“We have graphs and on this day (Nov. 29) back in 2018, we had raised $50,000,” she said. “In 2019, the total was about $45,000.”
This year’s total in the same time period was $24,240, which Rangel notes is even less than last year at the height of the pandemic.
“Even last year, we were a little farther ahead. We had collected about $35,000 and we’re never going to catch up if our donors are not active,” she said. “One of the things we noticed last year was with our virtual kettle things were really good. People were more aware because we were in the worst point of the pandemic and donors were more aware of the need and they found ways to help.”
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Other challenges have included finding drivers to take bell ringers to their various assignment posts which Rangel said has prompted the organization “to tell ringers to get there on their own and just meeting them with the bell.”
This year’s Salvation Army toy drive also started slowly, Rangel said, but added “I think it’s going better than it did last year.”
“Unfortunately we’ve lost some of our previous donors for good because they closed down but some who couldn’t participate last year came back,” she said. “Even today we were approached by one of them who said ‘We’re willing to do this’. We still have need but not as great as we did last year – we are getting there. We’re not as far behind as we are with the money.”
Clothing donations were cut back last year, “as we could not provide them for every child” Rangel said, adding that “coats, gloves and socks – these are basic necessities as far as clothing that are always a plus” and that those donations are welcome.
“We do our best to assist everyone that comes until Dec. 24 and not turn anybody away once we do an interview to see there is a genuine need,” she said. “Whatever donations we receive will go to a child.”
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Donations can still be made by scanning the QR code at collection sites where new payment options like Apple Pay have been added this year.
Those interested in making a contribution online can go to www.centralusa.salvationarmy.org/auroraIL/contact-us/
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News. Alice Yin of the Chicago Tribune contributed.
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