Delores Richards and I are the two volunteer coordinators for the Salvation Army in Lyon County. 2021 was a very different and crazy year.

Once again, we were short of bell ringers however those that “rang the bell” were unbelievable. People rang multiple numbers of times and we ended up with a super fantastic year with just over $50,000. Lyon County gets to keep about 88% of that amount. Thank you everyone.

We were plagued with some horrible rumors. The first rumor said that the Salvation Army was funding money to Planned Parenthood. We are a Christian organization and don’t even ring the bell on Sundays. We have our own programs, so we do not fund any other organization.

The second rumor was that the Salvation Army is racist and our donors should apologize for their racism. As a Christian organization we remain committed to serving everyone in need — regardless of their beliefs, their background or their lifestyle, without discrimination. Racism is fundamentally incompatible with Christianity.

A huge thank you to the following groups of bell ringers starting with the Marshall Fire Department and 1st Independent Bank, for the second year in a row they each took one location for the entire day. A special thank you to the confirmation students from St. Mary’s in Cottonwood. We had two groups of Marshall Boys Hockey and one group of Marshall Girls Hockey. Marshall Honor Society rang for the second year in a row. We were fortunate to have several new bell ringers and among them were several Special Olympic Champions who did a fabulous job. Thank You.

Thank you to our “junior bell ringers” at the El Rancho Restaurant. Their smiles were great and they did a super job.

Our Realtor day was once again packed with ringers from Edina Realty, Marshall Area Homes, Wilson O’Brien, Keller Williams and Minnesota Land and Homes, thank you. Our locations where we ring the bell, Running’s, Hy-Vee, Ace Hardware and our newest, El Rancho are very much appreciated.

We had kettles in Minneota at Brad’s Grocery and AgPlus Convenience Store. In Cottonwood kettles were in Hardware Hank and Cottonwood Co-op Convenience Store. In Marshall we had Kettles in Hitching Post, Mikes Café, Perkins, Dollar Tree and Hy-Vee Gas. Thank you so much.

Marshall Independent and KMHL we so appreciate your support, thank you.

We thank our “Santa” and Hy-Vee for so generously matching funds for that day. We thank Keller Williams who for the second year matched the funds they collected. We thank Modern Woodman Financial Services for their generous matching of funds for all three bell ringing locations for three full days. Thank you also for the additional bell ringers that came with that matching.

The success of the Salvation Army’s mission depends on you. Our sincere appreciation and thank you to all who so generously contributed both time and money, it means a lot and makes a huge difference. If we left anyone off our list, we apologize and thank you for your involvement.

We are so very proud to be a part of this community family of Lyon County with your caring and willingness to help those in need.

Thank you and God Bless.

— Dennis Ozmun is a scheduling coordinator with the Salvation Army.