With only 11 days left until Christmas, the Salvation Army finds itself at just over half of their anticipated goal for red kettle donations, which they use to fund the majority of their annual budget. While they are in dire need of more volunteers and paid bell ringers, Captains Aaron and Rebekah Abram, the husband and wife team in charge of the Owensboro Salvation Army, say it was a Black Friday debacle that started the organization off in the red this year.
“We got a slow start because we lost four of our major locations that we used to ring at before Thanksgiving, because of a national agreement with that company,” Aaron said. “So we weren’t able to start there until Black Friday, which lost us $6,000 right out of the gate.”
Aaron said they didn’t find out about the retailer until two weeks before the season started, so the couple was scrambling to figure out how to make up the difference, especially since the other retailers will not allow the Salvation Army to ring before Black Friday either.
The total collected so far for 2018 is $64,500, less than half of the Salvation Army’s total collection goal of $115,000. The Abrams said the money collected through the red kettles is “a large chunk of our annual budget.”
“We have to plan in advance what we think we’ll get at Christmas time,” Aaron said. “We put that number in and kind build around that, so if we don’t hit it, we have to revise the budget to figure out where we can make cuts.”
He said they try to avoid making cuts to programming or staff, so unfortunately that only leaves social services expenses.
“We also don’t want to turn someone away from utility or rental assistance but those are the decisions we have to make. We’ve got a lot of ground to make up in this last two weeks,” Aaron said. “We don’t have enough of our paid workers, and we’re struggling with volunteers Monday through Friday.”
The Abrams said the paid ringers, who make a little over minimum wage, benefit from having a little extra income this time of the year and it gives them chance to provide Christmas for their family. Their long term goal is to get where 90 percent of the ringers are volunteers and 10 percent are paid ringers. Currently, 40 percent of the ball ringers are volunteers, compared to 35 percent in 2017 and 15 percent in 2016.
While the couple said they do have a larger number of volunteers on Saturdays, Aaron said, they are still going to have to get creative to get anywhere close to their goal. He mentioned several local businesses that are paying their employees to ring during their shifts, and other companies who are matching the amount their employees ring and bring in.
“We would really like for some of our local churches to step up,” Rebekah said. “We’ve got some major churches here in town. We’re all in this together.”
Aaron added that when larger civic groups and churches get involved, they are able to spread out the day with more bell ringers, taking shorted two-hour shifts. Rebekah said another way they hope to increase the excitement about donating is by participating in a husband and wife “Apron vs. Apron challenge” on Saturday the 22nd.
“I’m going to be at one door at WalMart 54, and he’s at the other door, for 12 hours,” Rebekah said. “To see who can raise the most money…to try to close that gap a little bit. We don’t ask anyone to do anything we wouldn’t do ourselves.”
Rebekah Abram is a fifth-generation corps officer in the Salvation Army. She grew up in Florida and, in 2005, became a cadet at The Salvation Army School for Officer Training, feeling led to follow the family’s calling to minister in those in need.
Aaron Abram is a also corps officer with the Salvation Army who grew up in Maryland and was actually an “Angel Tree kid” himself. He said the basketball he received as an Angel Tree recipient started him on his journey to regularly attending church, and eventually changed the course of his life.
“If it had not been for the Angel Tree, I would be in Cumberland, Maryland, doing who knows what,” Aaron said.
Rebekah and Aaron met in seminary and were married in 2008. They moved to Baltimore for their first station and, in 2017, moved to Owensboro. Both are ordained ministers at the Salvation Army church and have two children, ages 6 and 10.
The Abrams try to model for their own children what it looks like to serve as a family and they hope other families will follow this example as well. Aaron reassures those interested in volunteering that it is not difficult to be a bellringer, as the Salvation Army will provide everything that is needed.
“You go to the location that you choose at the time you have chosen and one of our staff members will come and get you set up with everything you need. You get a kettle, an apron and a bell. The stand’s already there,” Aaron said. “We’ll give you a quick crash course on how to do it. It’s really just as simple as saying thank you and Merry Christmas when someone gives.”
The Abrams said that it is the personal touches, the greeting shoppers as they come in and out of the store, that makes the real difference in trying to ensure everyone in the community has a Merry Christmas.
