Ever wonder if the spare change you drop into a Salvation Army kettle on your way into a store to do holiday shopping really makes a difference?
When enough people take the time to donate, those dollars and coins can quickly add up to make quite a large dent in the bell-ringers’ red kettles every Christmas. A $328,626 dent to be precise, Terry Burns says.
Burns not only helps U-M students resolve their overdue tuition as a collection coordinator for the Student Accounts office at U-M-Dearborn, she volunteers to help count the kettle money received by the Downriver Salvation Army Corps in Wyandotte every year starting the week before Thanksgiving up until Christmas Eve.
The Salvation Army is a nondenominational Christian agency organized in a similar fashion to the military. During the Christmas season, it raises money to provide food, clothing and toys to those in need through its donation kettles and bell-ringers stationed outside various department and grocery stores. The Wyandotte Corps services 17 Downriver communities.
Burns has been counting the kettle money for several years now, and says this year’s amount is more than $52,000 greater than last year’s, making it the best year for donations she can remember.
“The amount of donations increases every year,” she says, “but this was exceptional. I couldn’t believe it, especially with the economy in the shape that it is.”
Donations don’t come only in the form of spare change. Burns also has found earrings, batteries, eyeglass lenses, foreign money, rings and “lots of pocket lint” in the kettles. People also write checks that they drop into the kettles or mail directly to the Corps office.
“One year we got a diamond ring worth $3,000, and no one ever claimed it,” she says, chuckling.
Burns’ father, Clifford Clack, who serves on the advisory board for the Downriver Salvation Army, asked her in 1987 to help count the donations because of her previous work as a bank teller. She says she got hooked on tallying the kettle money, and in 1992 decided to work at the Salvation Army for a paycheck.
Even though she now works for the University, Burns still volunteers a great deal of her time at the Salvation Army, also writing thank-you letters for donations received by mail. This season, the number of mailed-in donations exceeded 500.
Burns also volunteers at the 104.3 WOMC-FM Radiothon held every February at Oakland Mall to benefit the Salvation Army’s Bed and Bread club, which feeds and shelters the homeless. In 2005, Burns and her husband, John, were named the Corps Volunteers of the Year.
“Before I started working at the University, I worked at the Wyandotte Corps for seven years and saw the need for the work that the Salvation Army does,” Burns says. “It is very humbling when you see a mother who has nothing come in at Christmastime and ask for help with food and toys for her children. The items that the Salvation Army provides may be the only help these families get during the Christmas season.”
Volunteering runs in Burns’ family. She, her husband and her parents all work side by side every night leading up to Christmas to hand count all donation money not tallied by machine.
“We were raised that way, to always help others, so it just seemed natural to start volunteering with The Salvation Army,” Burns says. “We work long hours, but it is definitely a labor of love.”
