Thanksgiving kicks off the annual bell ringing next to all those ‘Red Salvation Army Donation Kettles’. This year’s message? They need you more than ever.
The Salvation Army is going to be serving the needs this year of close to 24 million people here in the United States. In case you didn’t know it, the donations that you give in your area, stay in your area, to help the local people that really need help.
Kenneth Hodder, the National Commander of the Salvation Army, a dynamic guy with a Harvard education and a great personality, stopped by my radio show to bring us all up to speed on his organization, which is the largest social services organization in the United States. Roughly 5,000 Salvation Army officers, about 60,000 employees, and about 3 million volunteers are continuously working to help meet the needs of those in difficult situations.
“The economic impact of the pandemic continues to be a key issue to which the Salvation Army is addressing itself”, say Kenneth. “Right now, about 92 million Americans have had difficulty paying their most basic household expenses in the past week. Homelessness has grown by double digits. The coming freezing weather of winter threatens all sorts of people on the street, and there are those that might lose their homes as a result of evictions or loss of utilities. So there are a lot of reasons to become involved in meeting the needs of your neighbors. Money put in the kettle is going to stay in that community. People should know that they are helping the people in need, in their area, whenever they give to the Salvation Army.”
Kenneth was thrilled that country singer Dolly Parton helped the kickoff by donating 1 million dollars to the Salvation Army Red Kettle Campaign right before Thursday’s football game between the Dallas Cowboys and The Washington Commanders, where she was the halftime performer.
If you or someone you know needs help and you see someone who’s in a Salvation Army uniform, just tell them what you need! They’ll call the local Salvation Army who will do whatever they can to assist you. They’re always ready to help. Like this lovely young volunteer who proudly posed for me after I donated and we spoke.
“We’re seeing an increasing number of volunteers, says Commander Kenneth Hodder, “and I’m inviting all your listeners to volunteer this year for a kettle. Donating a couple of hours of your time, can buy several nights of shelter for someone. It can provide several dozen meals for a family. You can make a huge difference having a lot of fun standing out on the street corner ringing a bell, bring your spouse, bring your pet, bring your children, join your corporate group. It’s a great thing to do in the holiday season. It will make you feel good, and you’ll make a real difference.”
You can check out the volunteering options at SalvationArmyUSA.org, which are generally done in about two-hour segments.
82 cents of every dollar donated goes directly toward funding Salvation Army initiatives and it stays within the community in which it was given.
My personal suggestion to Kenneth, was that he hurry up and figure out how someone could just walk up to those red kettles and swipe a credit card across, because as we all know, people hardly carry cash anymore. He said he would get right ‘on it’!
Enjoy the podcast of my live conversation with Kenneth Hodder, The National Commander of the Salvation Army, on The Debbie Nigro Show. He was a blast. If you’d rather read than listen the audio transcript is below.
Meanwhile you can donate in several ways online as well.
If you want more information, again, it’s SalvationArmyUSA.org
AUDIO TRANSCRIPT:
0:00:00
And now back to the Debbie Nigro Show.
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0:00:03
Tell me just what you want me to be every year right about Thanksgiving you start to hear this sound and I happen to pull it up let’s see Bobby can I get it? And that is the Salvation Army Red Belt. There is a kickoff going on and I’m really happy to be participating in helping share
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0:00:26
this year’s message which is wow they need you more than ever man. Yeah the Salvation Army is going to be serving like 24 million people here in the United States. But the donations that you will be giving in your area stay in your area and help people that really need help in your area. So I want you to meet a very, very amazing guy. His name is Kenneth Hodder. He’s the commissioner and the national commander of the Salvation Army, which is, in case you didn’t know, the largest social services organization in the United States. Hey there, Kenneth, how are you?
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0:01:42
Debbie, I’m doing great. Happy Thanksgiving to you.
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0:01:45
Happy Thanksgiving to you. Boy, you’ve taken on a big job, Kenneth.
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0:01:48
Well, I tell you, you know, the Lord called me to become a Salvation Army officer 36 years ago, and I love every day, I love everything that I do. So yeah, it’s a big job, but I wouldn’t do anything else.
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0:02:02
You know, Lord must have called you on a dial-up phone back then, right? And you must have been home to get that call. That’s right. Thank goodness you were home that day, Kenneth. I know you spent a lot of time. Hey, I know you’re a smart guy. Harvard College, Harvard Law School, corporate real estate law in LA before you got the call on the bat phone there. But, yeah, this is a really important thing you guys do every year. I watch sometimes as people walk by those red kettles and don’t take money out of their pocket. I’m like, really? And I always hope I have change to put in there, some singles or whatever, because, you know, I’m going to do it more than one time, right? So I just wanted to give you the platform to explain to everybody why this year is more important than ever that people put that money in there
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0:02:51
and where the money goes. I appreciate that so much. The economic impact of the pandemic continues to be a key issue to which the Salvation Army is addressing itself. Right now, about 92 million Americans have had difficulty paying their most basic household expenses in the past week. Homelessness has grown by double digits. The coming freezing weather of winter threatens all sorts of people on the street, those that might lose their homes as a result of evictions or loss of utilities. So there is a lot of reason to become involved in meeting the needs of your neighbors. And as you correctly point out, money put in the kettle is going to stay in that community So the people can always know that they are helping the people that they will see on the street that they are closest to that they are working with Whenever they give to the Salvation Army
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0:03:49
Well, I want to really make this point about the validity of the Salvation Army still in this day and age because some people will question You know is this a scam is you know where’s that money going? I do understand and you can you can elaborate on this that anywhere from 40 to 60 percent of the funds raised come directly from the public and individual contributions and the real importance of those red kettles. I just want to encourage everybody to give a little more. What do you do with the money in terms of sharing it in a local community? How does that work?
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0:04:22
So the Salvation Army, since its inception, Debbie, has always raised good stewardship as one of our key principles. So the Salvation Army, when it receives money in the Christmas kettles, will have it stay right there. It will support the ongoing work of the Salvation Army in that community. It will always be directed to the most critical needs in that community, and every Salvation Army unit will submit an annual report every year to report back to the community as to how the funds have been used. In other words, we are eager to maintain the trust that has built up over a hundred and thirty-three years every single year. We see that as an enormous gift, but we also see it as a
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0:05:09
tremendous responsibility and we’re mindful of it every day. That’s great. Now this year you’re expecting as I understand the requests for help to go up by like 13% and the costs of assistance to go up by 21%. The money goes to food, housing, other services, sometimes rent and utilities, right? Right. How do people get help from you? Do they just go to the Salvation Army? Do they call? How do they tell you they need help?
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0:05:40
Well, there are several things to keep in mind here. First of all, I want to say that Major Raphael Jackson, who is the commander of the Salvation Army’s work in the greater New York area, does an outstanding job. Over the course of the past year, we’ve helped more than 800,000 people in the greater New York area, about 6 million meals. People can contact the Salvation Army in all kinds of ways. First of all, if you see a Salvationist on the street in their uniform, that person is wearing that uniform as a means of saying, I’m available to you. So if you have a need and you see someone who’s in a Salvation Army uniform, just say, you know what, I need this need or that need, they will always be ready to help. They can call the local Salvation Army. They can go online to SalvationArmyUSA.org. And this is absolutely critical. If anybody who’s listening here today, Debbie, has a need, reach out to the Salvation Army because we’re here to do what we can to assist.
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0:06:41
Okay, you know what I just read that I thought was important to mention, Kenneth, that the donations can be made not only through the red kettles because, you know, there’s other ways of paying these days, you know, we’re in the New World Order, you can pay digitally with Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal and Venmo at any Red Kettle across the country by text. You text KETTLES to 51555 or you can go to the website give.salvationarmyusa.org. I do think you’re going to have to really get real creative though, Commander, and start putting scanning things like, you know, on the kiosks instead of just the cash. I think you need to do like the parking people do.
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0:07:22
Oh, that’s a great idea.
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0:07:25
All right, Debbie.
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0:07:26
Okay. You’re on the team now.
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0:07:29
Kenneth, you went to Harvard. Do you need me to tell you that?
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0:07:32
Let’s go, Kenneth. Let’s do this. Absolutely. Anything to meet the needs of people. Right, you add a little scanner
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0:07:42
to the kettles. Look, I just went to a convention, I didn’t have cash for a bottle of water in a kiosk, a vending machine. So I put my little card in there and off I went. I think you’d get a lot more donations with just a little swiper, swipe, swipe, swipe, donate, donate, donate. Are you kidding me? They ask you to swipe for everything. You need to start swiping.
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0:08:05
You’re absolutely right. I will share that with our team today.
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0:08:09
Okay, and listen, one more thing, as long as I’m changing your entire platform. I think you need to get maybe the young community involved, all right, and the technology community for the best idea on who can come up with the best thing to make this happen. Hold a contest.
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0:08:29
Well, you know, it’s interesting you should say that. We are doing everything we can now to develop our social media presence, because you’re absolutely right. There is a huge storehouse of innovation and good thinking and strategic opportunity unity in our younger generation. And we’re finding them to be tremendous supporters of the Salvation Army. So I have every confidence that in the years to come we’re going to do all of these things
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0:09:00
because so long as there is human need, there will always be a Salvation Army there to help. Absolutely. And then your invention, with the help of some innovators, can go on the National Inventors Hall of Fame along with Dorcas Riley, who invented the recipe for the green bean casserole. That’s my other
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0:09:16
story today. That’s a great idea. Well you know we popularized the donut. I don’t know if you knew about that. I don’t. Yes, the Salvation Army in 1915 helped a brigadier who had lost his family in a house fire. He’d lost his wife and his four girls. And that brigadier’s name was John Pershing. Two years later, he’s leading the American Expeditionary Force in France. He asks the Salvation Army to come over and to give some support to his boys. Our people went over to the front lines. We made little fried treats that the boys loved so much, they started to call themselves Doughboys. They came back, they told their wives and their mothers and their sisters about these donuts, and the American obsession for the donut was born.
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0:10:13
Oh, that was a better story than my story, Kenneth.
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0:10:16
But it’s a symbol of the fact that the Salvation Army is deeply embedded in American culture, and that we’re so grateful to folks for the support they give every year to what we do.
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0:10:29
All right, I’ve got one more idea for you. Now you’re sparking me. I think you’re going to have to sell donuts next to the red kettle and you’ll make more money.
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0:10:37
Yeah, well, you know, we have in fact Donut Day every year. We work with Dunkin’ Donuts, we work with Krispy Kreme, big supporters of our work, just to do that very thing.
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0:10:50
I was thinking more of a kettle with oil in it and making homemade donuts next to the red kettle. I was going deep, Kenneth. I was going deep.
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0:10:59
There’s another good idea.
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0:11:00
Hey, you’re a fun personality. I’m enjoying you a lot and I appreciate that you bring this great energy to such a big platform. You are the national commander of the Salvation Army, Kenneth Hodder. How many commanders under you in individual states? I heard you mention there’s a guy in New York. Is there one in every state or more?
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0:11:20
Oh yes, we have about 5,000 Salvation Army officers, about 60,000 employees, and about 3 million volunteers. You’re busy. Wow. So it keeps us going, Debbie. Wow.
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0:11:33
I noticed that who mans these kettles, these red kettles, are both volunteers and paid volunteers. Am I correct?
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0:11:42
Yes, ma’am, and we’re seeing an increasing number of volunteers. I’m inviting all of your listeners to volunteer this year for a kettle. A couple of hours can buy several nights of shelter for someone. It can provide several dozen meals for a family. You can make a huge difference having a lot of fun standing out on the street corner ringing a bell, bring your spouse, bring your pet, bring your children, join your corporate group. It’s a great thing to do in the holiday season. It will make you feel good and you’ll make a real difference.
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0:12:21
How much time does somebody have to commit to if they agree to be a volunteer? Can they just do a couple of hours or they have to say like, you know, I think people’s time is limited. So what is the minimum amount of time and how does that work if somebody wanted to volunteer?
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0:12:35
If they go to our website, SalvationArmyUSA.org, they’ll see that we generally do it in about two hour segments.
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And that’s it?
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So it’s not a lot of time.
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Not a lot of time. You can give two hours, people listening here, to go ring a bell for the Salvation Army and help out. Commissioner Kenneth Hodder, the National Commander of the Salvation Army, I enjoyed you very much and thank you so much for doing what you do. And I appreciate that we’re talking about this right now because there are a lot of people who are in need this year more than ever, homeless, they need help with utility bills, with rent, whatever, and this money, 82 cents of every dollar donated goes directly toward funding Salvation Army initiatives and it stays within the community in which it was given. If you want more information, it’s SalvationArmyUSA.org. You guys have a great day.
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0:13:22
Thanks so much, Debbie, and a Merry Christmas to you.
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0:13:25
You too, you too. Don’t rush to Christmas. I haven’t even had the turkey yet, Kenneth. Please. You’re one of those people.
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0:13:31
Have a great day.
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0:13:32
God bless you. I bless you too. Thank you. More to come. One more story right after this. More to come. One more story right after this. More to come, one more story right after this.
Transcribed with Cockatoo
