Triad Superintendent, others rings bell for Salvation Army

Triad Community Unit School District 2 Superintendent Dr. Jason Henderson, right, joined colleagues with similar positions Saturday, December 6, at St. Clair Square in Fairview Heights to ring bells as part of the annual Salvation Army kettle campaign. Shown with him are, from left, Superintendents Carrie Hruby of O’Fallon School District 90, Kelly Bohnenstiehl of Signal Hill School District 181 in Belleville and Matt Stines of Grant Community School District 110 in Fairview Heights (photo courtesy of Matt Stines)

by Randy Pierce

Dr. Jason Henderson, Triad Community Unit School District’s superintendent, was among a group of education professionals from the region who volunteered their time on Dec. 6, to participate in the annual Salvation Army Red Kettle campaign by ringing bells at the entrance to St. Clair Square in Fairview Heights.

For two hours that afternoon, Henderson and three others, recruited for this effort by Matt Stines, the superintendent of Grant Community Consolidated School District 110 in Fairview Heights and an immediate past president of the Rotary Club in that community, stood at the main front door of the mall, spreading holiday season cheer and greeting shoppers as part of the effort.

In keeping with an annual tradition started in 1973, members of the Fairview Heights Rotary Club, including Stines and many of his fellow superintendents, have been ringing bells in an effort to raise funds for the Salvation Army one Saturday every December. There were Fairview Heights Rotarians stationed for this purpose at the rear mall door where the Dillard’s store is located. 

The Salvation Army provides its services in 127 countries and is the only charitable organization in the United States to help the needy in every single zip code in the nation, covering all 48 continental states plus Alaska and Hawaii.

The Salvation Army helps people in need with food, utility bills, rent, mortgage payments, water service costs and other support they require for survival. 

For those unable to donate to the organization through the kettle donation process, it can be done online by going to www.stl-salvationarmy.org but if you want it to go toward helping people in St. Clair County be sure to explicitly say so. Bell ringers are always needed and may initiate the volunteering procedure at www.Registertoring.com.

Salvation Army provides help from numerous locations from one end of Illinois to the other, meeting with people who are in crisis situations, including serving meals to them. These include people impacted by a life event, unexpected, unplanned, that came up so in looking for hope, they come to the Salvation Army. Sometimes what the Salvation Army offers is just counsel and opportunity to let those in need inventory their assets that they do have and work from their strengths rather than their weaknesses.

The kettle tradition itself began in San Francisco in 1891 when an empty crab pot was placed by Salvation Army Captain Joseph McFee outside a ferry landing point to collect money for the poor. The Salvation Army itself began in a bar in London, England in 1865 through the Methodist church as a way to bring people to Jesus Christ.