It's Time To Ring That Bell

It's that time of the year, when the count down slippery slope of days hurl themselves towards the frenzy of Christmas shopping, and all that the holidays bring to mind.

This year, retailers and financial analysts alike -- are no doubt holding their breaths, worried that wallets will be unopened, and credit cards will be hiding in the freezer, for fear of being cut up.

However, this Christmas, all I want is for people to ring that bell that stands for true charity and compassion.

Days before Christmas in the late 1980s -- A single mom sat in teary despair in a cheap motel, along with her youngest child. Unemployed, homeless, and unable to pay the next week's room rate, she was feeling very hopeless.

She'd gone to social services, and had been turned down for any help-- due to the fact that on paper, she was due to receive more child support than the norm for that state. It made no difference to the governmental social service agency, that this money hadn't been paid in months.

She had no one to blame, but herself for her situation. She'd left a stable job and flew across country, to follow the empty promises of man she didn't know well enough to hitch her future hopes and dreams upon. Fresh from a recent filing of divorce, she was perhaps not thinking clearly, when she jumped from the matrimonial pan, into the fire of a new romantic flame that was destined to burn her. Inconsistent child support had been a reality for years, and had nothing to do with the causes of the circumstances of the moment.

This wasn't the first time she'd been near homeless. The idea that it was happening again, nearly ten years after the first time, was unbearable. Once again, bad personal decisions in men, had left her in a mess. She owned total responsibility and needed to fix this bad condition of continuing stupidity fast.

With a thirteen year old son, who was hungry for both normalcy, stability, and food -- she swallowed her pride. She went to a local charitable organization she'd heard, would give you a grocery bag of food, no questions asked. They not only gave them food, but they also gave her a chance to regain their lives and dignity.

Within two days of getting that grocery bag, they had a roof over their heads with the rent paid for two months. Within hours of having been given the keys, a truck arrived with two new beds, living-room furniture, dishes, a black and white television, and other necessities. They had even offered to go back and bring her a Christmas tree.

As she looked around, she felt too embarrassed and declined the offer. They'd already given them so much. A Christmas without a tree wasn't a big deal -- when they had everything anyone needs -- each other, food, and a safe place to live.

In the over twenty-five years since then, there has not been a single Christmas that the woman they helped, has not made a donation, each and every time she has passed a Salvation Army bell ringer. I ought to know, because I am that woman.

The founder of the Salvation Army was an evangelistic British Methodist preacher, William Booth. Born in 1829, he left the rest of the world a legacy that we'd be wise to aspire to -- he saw problems, looked for solutions, and inspired others to follow in his footsteps, long after he died in 1912. That quality of seeing a "great need" and taking action transcends time way beyond William Booth's original vision.

While many Americans may think that the Salvation Army is a uniquely American charitable organization, in reality it is an international charity recognized for being one of the principal and unsurpassed providers of humanitarian aid. The Salvation Army is established in over one hundred countries.

William Booth's book, In Darkest England and the Way Out, was republished in 1890. In it, he outlined his very ambitious plans for helping the poorest and the neediest of society. Even today, it's quite an inspiring and very interesting read. Just the Table of Contents alone are intriguing and thought provoking topics.

As a sometimes antique book dealer, I happen to own an original copy of the 1890 book, which was reprinted again in 2006 and available today. In his day, he was a best selling author, selling over 200,000 copies of the book the very first year.

This one book, inspired many state welfare systems across the world to adopt their own versions of his vision. Furthermore, within ten years his organization of The Salvation Army -- it grew to serve over twenty-seven million meals, housed over eleven million homeless, reunited eighteen thousand families, and found employment for the jobless.

In many communities, The Salvation Army, is also a place where people have hidden opportunities to run their own successful businesses. An example I'm going to give you is in Orlando, Florida.

Three times a week, in the back of this Salvation Army Thrift Store and donation site, auctions are held. The Salvation Army gets more donations of certain items than they have room for or can sell, such as:

• Books
• Computers
• Furniture
• Appliances
• Baby and toddler items
• Lawn maintenance equipment

Locals buy these items by the truckload for resell at flea markets, yard sales, and in their small businesses. Why?:

• I personally have bought books (sold by the pallet) and resold them online for very good profit. A truckload of books can be bought for around $25.00. That's pennies a book. One other book dealer buys them and resells them by the hundreds at a local flea market for $1.00 a book (obviously he has a strong back). Others have small used book stores.
• A couple of men are in the business of buying appliances and have stores where they resell these used washers, dryers, and refrigerators with six month guarantees.
• Some sell computers at local flea markets, other buy them for harvesting precious metals and online reselling of parts.

The point is -- if you use your mind (and your back) you can help others, and help yourself be independent of working for others, or supplement your income.

If you are lucky to live long enough, hopefully you learn certain truths. The truths about charity are complex. I have a personal code of charity that comes from the depths of having "been on the receiving end." To me, charity begins with a simple concept that it's something you do -- not to get a tax write off (our accountant gives me grief about this).

It's about seeing someone with a need and helping. It's about helping others to help themselves (by gently teaching them what they may not know about self-sufficiency). It's all about doing this as quietly and as anonymously as possible.

Charity isn't something you brag about (even to your family members), it's something you just do. True charity begins with the people you encounter every day, who in my opinion were placed in your life for a reason.

This Christmas season, more than in past holiday seasons, it's going to be harder than ever for charitable organizations such as the Salvation Army, to get donations. This at a time, when more people than ever before in recent history, need help.

Sometimes it's hard not to be jaded, when it seems like we are being begged to death on a daily basis, to reach in our pockets and give more. In a commercial oriented society, it seems like everybody and their brother has their hands out, especially every year around the Christmas holidays.

Many of us are tired of some well-known "charitable organizations" who pay their CEOs outrageous salaries, while simultaneously not helping in the manner they should, especially in natural disasters. Others are too far too aggressive and pervasive in their donation gathering. How many of us are bothered by employers who virtually make it mandatory to "give" to certain charities to make their donation quotas?

The Salvation Army seems to be the one shining example of "how to run a charity right."

Far too often, people who are moving or cleaning out their homes, look at charitable organization donation sites, as dumping sites for getting rid of unwanted used items. As a result, this presents a huge problem for organizations like The Salvation Army. Here are some common sense rules for making good donations:

• Don't "dump and run" items that are really trash
• If you are donating something that is electrical or battery operated, make sure it works
• If donating something electrical or battery operated that is not working, at least tag it that it doesn't work
• Include any operating manuals the came with the original item
• Include all parts and pieces to donation (nobody wants a bunch of junk)
• Donate "clean" clothing
• Call ahead to verify the donation site's hours of operation
• Call ahead to verify if you are donating items that may be questionable
• Don't donate dirty items
• Don't donate hopelessly broken items
• Don't "dump and run" anything outside a donation center or charitable thrift store "after hours"

Finally, don't cruise donation sites for items to resell at your yard sale; on eBay, etc.