Christmas bells signal time for charitable giving

BY KARYN SPORY

Mt. Pleasant News

The sound of bells were momentarily silenced as Mary Ann Messer and Marcia Kentner untied their Salvation Army aprons and handed them over to the next shift ? Dorothy Welcher and her grandson Jacob Fry.

The foursome were standing outside of Hy-Vee Tuesday afternoon, ringing bells and encouraging the store?s patrons to donate their spare change to the not-for-profit organization.

?Dorothy has always wanted to do this,? said Messer of why members of the 6 a.m. Bible study group at St. Alphonsus Church decided to brave the cold to spread a little holiday cheer and collect some donations for Salvation Army.

?I noticed last year in the classified ads that (Salvation Army) was looking for volunteers,? said Welcher. ?The Salvation Army does a lot of good and helps a lot of people, we just wanted to help them on their mission.?

Welcher signed up for an eight-hour shift, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. But she wasn?t about to do it alone. ?We have a lot of friends that agreed to help out,? she said. ?Everyone is very generous with their time.?

Members of the study group agreed to ring the bells that seem synonymous with Christmas for an hour each. However, like most things in life, the sign up sheet didn?t pan out as planned. ?We had one person have some unexpected things come up, so we took on an extra shift,? said Kentner.

?Working 10-6 is a lot for one person,? she went on to say, ?but splitting it up like this, it?s not bad.?

?We lucked out with a beautiful day,? Messer admired as the sun shone bright.

Despite the beautiful end-of-November weather, Messer said she was astounded with some of the apparel she saw being worn. ?There were some people wearing shorts, t-shirts and flip flops,? she said. ?We teased them a bit, but they said they wanted to wear it one more time before it gets too cold.?

Each of the ladies said they had thoroughly enjoyed their time ringing the bell. ?We get to see a lot of people we don?t always get to see,? said Welcher.

And overall, the ladies said the people of Mt. Pleasant were very giving.

?It helps when you know the people walking by,? joked Welcher. ?But they?re all very giving. Some say they put in yesterday. There was one lady who put change in the bucket and said she puts money in every Salvation Army bucket she sees.?

?Either way,? Kentner said, ?we?re putting a smile on someone?s face being out here. And we?re having fun doing it.?