howdy there Oatmeal! so you were a bell ringer for the Salvation Army..that's a great cause but why did you choose to do that? do they pay well? I don't understand why they didn't like you sometimes.
howdy there Oatmeal! so you were a bell ringer for the Salvation Army..that's a great cause but why did you choose to do that? do they pay well? I don't understand why they didn't like you sometimes.
Grew up around them.
Me and my siblings grew up in Oregon in the 80's and 90's, and we attended different churches, Bible clubs, Bible camps, youth groups, and that included Word Of Life and Salvation Army children clubs and camps. Our youngest sibling, our younger sister, Crystal, was born in 1990 and she encouraged me to work at Salvation Army's Camp Kuratli in 2007 which led me to meet Rob Noland, the director of Revolution Hawaii. I felt led to go to Hawaii. So, one thing led to another thing, and so on and so forth.
Revolution Hawaii
The Salvation Army (specifically, Rob) started Revolution Hawaii, an annual mission trip, AKA vocational missionary training war college, in 2006. So, I attended their 2nd year, 2007-2008. During the Christmas season, we were sent out to different islands, different parts, of Hawaii. So, me and Jeff Walters, went off to the Big Island to do ministry and to Get Your Joy On (GYJO) in a crazy music video we made for fun.
Get Your Joy On (GYJO)
One of the things we did there was bell ringing.
In 2007, like I said, they had me bell ringing. But then something must have happened. Maybe people complained. Then, they assigned me to the Giving Tree at like a mall where we let people pick off names of kids off the Christmas Tree to buy presents for.
Bell Ringing
They pay minimum wage which was maybe around $10 USD/hour in 2007 and maybe more in 2010 and 2011, or something like that. You are paid to put on the red apron, go to a place, a store, grab the red money kettle (bucket) from customer service, or wherever the store may have it, grab the stand from behind a vending machine, the carts, or wherever, put the kettle on the stand.
Like a London Guard, stand there. Don't move.
Stand there, ring the bell, smile, greet people, and then return the stand and kettle at the end of the day or pass the bell on to the next ringer at the end of your shift.
A normal shift lasts about 6 hours hours.
They usually split the day into two parts and one ringer will get the first half and the other ringer will relieve the ringer and take over for the remaining time. The bell ringers begin to ring when the stores open and they stop when the stores close, generally, which tends to be from 8 AM to 7 PM, Monday to Friday, around 13 hours a day minus an hour or less for lunch and for a break or two. A bell ringer may work 5 or 6 days a week, from the day after Thanksgiving until Christmas Eve, generally.