Phyllis Townsend remembers the early days of Salvation Army Christmas bell ringers Red Kettle, and even how she was attacked in times of need while growing up during the Great Depression.
As a regular bell ringer for more than 30 years, she has heard many stories of families and Americans benefiting from all the bills and coins that fall in the small year.
“I’ve met a lot of other people who have been very touched by their experience with The Salvation Army,” said Townsend, who began ringing the bell in Glenwood Springs shortly after retiring to the Roaring Fork Valley in the early 1990s.
One of the other people is a guy who came to deposit cash in his teapot at the El Jebel city market last year. She said the relief agency’s efforts literally saved her son’s life in Grand Junction while he suffered from alcoholism and viajando. la back and out.
“What I like the most is that they are there and help other people in various circumstances. Some of those desires are very temporary, others are not. But The Salvation Army is here to help,” he said, emphasizing the key word through spelling. it’s “HELP. “
This season, at age 95, he’s still there, doing a weekly outdoor shift at El Jebel Market, as he’s done since his first shifts at Glenwood Springs.
She is sometimes accompanied by her daughter and son-in-law, Maureen and John Fitzpatrick, with whom she lives in Missouri Heights, north of the city.
“The wonderful thing about being a bell ringer is that all kinds of people come into the store to buy things, stop, put anything in the kettle and say, ‘Oh, I wish I could give more. ‘And I’m like, ‘No, no, this all helps!'” he said.
Cristina Ruiz, director of the Salvation Army in Glenwood Springs, met Townsend at the 2022 Kettle Kickoff event.
“She stood up and talked about how The Salvation Army had helped her family as a child and said she and her family rang the bell every year,” Ruiz said. “It’s a great wonder and an honor to be able to meet her.
“Having long-lasting bell ringers like Ms. Townsend is a testament to the trust of the chain and the mission of The Salvation,” he added. “Bell ringers know that their shift of one, two hours or more is a vital way to get back into their network and help their neighbor through a difficult time.
He said long-time ringers come back year after year because it’s so much fun and, like Townsend, some ring the doorbell multiple times during the season.
“I hope I can follow Mrs. Townsend’s example and give the death sentence for my final years,” he said.
He said those who have a volunteer center and for their peers can make a difference by volunteering to ring the doorbell at one of the many Red Kettle locations that stretch from Aspen to Parachute.
Local sites are coordinated through volunteers from various service organizations, including Rotary, Lions, Kiwanis, and High School Key Clubs. But Americans can also sign up for positions on a new registration website: RegisterToRing. com.
Volunteers can ring the doorbell in Parachute, Rifle, New Castle, Glenwood Springs, Carbondale, El Jebel, Snowmass Village and Aspen, at grocery stores and major stores, such as Walmart.
Ruiz said the budget given to local communities remains local and the families and Americans who live and work in the area. They would possibly face issues such as eviction, application cuts, transportation issues or perhaps need help placing orders, he said.
Townsend began employing a special bell on her shifts after being dissatisfied with the sound of the chimes provided.
In search of a louder, more distinctive ringtone, she rang a bell that her schoolmate, Aunt Lucille, used to ring to children at the beginning of each day and during recess at the single-room school where she taught in Virginia.
“The school was about a mile from the farm where I lived,” she said, explaining that her aunt used the same buzzer until the school moved to a larger building where categories were separated by grade.
He said he enjoyed sharing stories with other people who stopped by the teapot and especially enjoyed when the children had a handful of coins or expenses to bring.
“They like to put everything in the little slot, and they rarely have a hard time putting it all in, so I help,” he said. “And then I hand them the bell so they can ring it. “
He also likes other people to look at his charts and read all the license plates of cars passing past the store to see where other people are coming from.
Townsend estimates that the most he saw fall into his kettle was a $100 bill.
“You don’t see a lot of Benjamins,” he says. But we see Georges a lot.
“It’s very enriching and very educational. And even that is an understatement when you consider the scope of certain people’s desires,” he said of this meaningful experience.
Townsend also fondly remembers attending a concert by a Salvation Army band in Alexandria, Virginia, one year. In the early days – and still today in the big cities – the bell-ringers were accompanied by a small band, although it was quite large, with about a hundred members, he recalls.
“And, oh my God, they just destroyed the place with each and every piece,” he said.
The band was preparing to play somewhere in Latin America and had adapted some of their anthems to the Latin rhythm style, giving a flavor to the local audience before leaving.
She begins to sing, “Leaning on the eternal arms, cha cha cha!”
Townsend brings a worldly outlook to her future volunteer efforts, having grown up the daughter of a World War II Navy veteran and later married a military man, with the opportunity to live in places around the world.
“We’ve moved around a lot,” he said, referring to a succession of military missions in San Francisco, then Hawaii and places like Midway, Wake Island, the Cayman Islands, Guam, the Philippines and various locations in China.
His father served on the USS Arizona and the largest battleship of the time, the Colorado (rightly so, given his ultimate destination), and later on the Augusta.
“We spent three years in China and it was a very formative time in my life,” Townsend said of his formative years at the height of World War II.
Many commanders of the time were surnamed, and she remains an avid buff of World War II Pacific Theater history, recommending some of the books that tell those stories, such as Richard McKenna’s “The Sand Pebbles” and James D. ‘s “Neptune’s Inferno. “Hornfischer.
Townsend receives his wedding call from the son of one of his father’s classmates, Jack Townsend, who also served in many places in the United States and around the world. The had children.
For more facts about The Salvation Army’s regional organization and online donation options, visit westernusa. salvationarmy. org/glenwood-springs.
John Stroud is a freelancer founded in Carbondale and an experienced journalist for 35 years in the Roaring Fork Valley.
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