Salvation Army seeking volunteers

Reporter

tdunn@gcnnewsgazette.com

The local Salvation Army Unit is begging for bell ringers this holiday season.

With the lack of local volunteers this holiday season the bells did not ring over the Thanksgiving weekend and the local unit has lost an estimated $2,000 in expected donations.

The money collected from the holiday bell ringers is used for things throughout the year to help victims of fire and domestic violence as well as buying needed prescriptions or helping the elderly buy a tank of propane.

"The money generated by the local Salvation Army program stays in the county and helps serve 400 to 500 Grayson County children through the Angel Tree program and provides an estimated $2500 each year to the Senior Citizens Christmas Program," said local Salvation Army Officer Tracy Dennison.

Over 200 seniors are provided with gift cards and other Christmas goodies. Needy children are provided the opportunity to attend camp in the summer and many other worthy causes are funded with the funds generated from holiday bell ringing.

"All these programs are possible with the generous donations of the citizens of Grayson County, but without bell ringers these donations can not be collected," said Dennison.

"We are asking everyone to challenge their church, family and other organization to pick a day between now and Christmas Eve to ring the bell in support of the Salvation Army," added local Salvation Army Officer Angie Jones.

"Anyone can ring the bell, from the young to old," added Dennison. "A group of 16 an keep the bells ringing from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. each day."

Some of the management team at Wal-Mart have noticed the bell of Salvation Army was silent and have volunteered to help.

"We have kinda taken this on as a project because we noticed that they did not have enough bell ringers," said store manager Rick Rutledge. "Other employees are doing it different days and we are hoping it helps to get more people interested."

If any group would like to sign up to ring the bell please call Tracy Dennison at (270) 259-0043 or if interested people are unable to ring the bell and would like to make a donation to the local unit you can do so by sending a check to: Salvation Army 125 E. Market Street, Leitchfield, Kentucky 42754.