Photo by Samantha Davis Marsha Culhane, a longtime volunteer, rings the bell for the Salvation Army Red Kettle Campaign Wednesday morning at Hy-Vee in Marshall.

MARSHALL — The holiday season is in full swing, and so is the Salvation Army’s Red Kettle campaign that takes place annually and fills the walls of local stores with chimes of bell ringing as people walk through and drop donations into the iconic red kettles.

“It’s fun to see the smiles from other people as they put money in there (the buckets) and do their part,” Marshall bell ringing event coordinator David Olafson said.

The Lyon County Salvation Army is encouraging local community members to engage in the season of giving by signing up to be a bell ringing volunteer. Shifts can be 1 to 2 hours, and people can volunteer multiple times. Locations are at Marshall’s Hy-Vee grocery store, Runnings and Ace Hardware, all inside the entryway.

“We ring the bells Monday through Saturday, and we ring from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m.,” Marshall’s other bell ringing event coordinator John Drown said. “We go out with the bell ringing to raise revenue to give to the needy people. The funds that we raise stay locally.”

The Salvation Army is a nonprofit international organization that helps those in need in various ways. The holiday Red Kettle campaign is one of the most well-known times of the year for the company, which originally began in 1891.

According to the Salvation Army, the organization assisted 27 million people last year across the United States and served 134 countries.

However, about 90% of the money donated in local counties goes directly back to the community.

“Salvation Army at the state level takes a small amount off the top,” Lyon County Salvation Army treasurer Paul Bridgland said. “Every other dime is spent within the boundary of Lyon County. It doesn’t go anywhere else.”

Marsha Culhane is a committed bell ringer volunteer, who took her spot at Hy-Vee Wednesday morning to carry on the tradition. She acknowledged that it’s fun to engage with people as they walk by.

“The categories that we spend money on are housing, transportation and utilities,” Bridgland said. “It might not sound like a crisis to us, but it’s a crisis to another individual.”

Drown also echoed where money goes to.

“We will make donations to those families who might need food, they might need clothing, they might need money to pay for the fuel to heat their home … To pay for gasoline to go to their medical appointments,” Drown said. “The funds are distributed out to the people, and that’s what we do. That’s where we spend the money, is putting it back out.”

Bridgland said some common areas he sees the donations go to is paying electricity bills with Marshall Municipal Utilities, supporting transportation for those in need, and also sometimes get referrals from local police enforcement based on situations they may come across like homelessness.

“It’s (the money) very carefully monitored to help people who really need it, and we are helping people who really need it,” Bridgland said. “Our budget though, we only have the money we raise.”

There is about a week and a half left of the campaign, which runs the Saturday before Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve on Dec. 24. However, Bridgland said they got off to a slower start this year due to Thanksgiving being later this November.

“The need is there. There’s no question about that,” Bridgland said. “We never have any trouble spending it.”

People can sign up for shifts at registertoring.com, select the county preference and location of bell ringing.

The Marshall community has already given generous donations. Both Drown and Bridgland said they received a $1,000 check from donors earlier this week.

“Those are great, wonderful and rare. It’s also the person who puts $5, $10, $2 in there that matters. The more people that do that, the better, the more it helps,” Bridgland said. “Having somebody ring the bell matters. When there’s people ringing the bell, after two or three hours, that kettle is full.”

As bell ringers gather together to welcome people into local stores with holiday cheer, the Marshall community once again continues to show up and show out for one another.

“It 100% would have a strong impact, and it’s for the health and well being of our local citizenry that we’re doing this,” Drown said. “We’re very excited to do it. We just feel a real need to see this get taken care of.”