Many volunteers have signed up with the online program RingBells.org which has been very helpful especially with the marathon advertisement sponsored and aired by the local TV station during the Christmas season. The program allows random people on the internet after filing out an application with contact information to pick their location and length of pre-set times they would like to volunteer to ring bells at a specific store kettle location. This tremendously helps Elton since he is relieved of some financial pressure of paying for an uninterested worker to stand there and also involves contact with the community a bit more. He likes to greet each volunteer at the kettle during their time of thoughtful service and thank them for their time.
After lunch, he speaks with families who are interested in registering for Angel Tree program with the help of a few very faithful volunteers. He reviews the latest applications that have been entered into the computer program. He finds many packages in the receptionist’s office that have just been delivered from JC Penney’s Angel Giving Tree program for children in need in the Crestwood community. It has been a long day.
Realizing that he has some media appointments for the Turkey Drive with the TV and radio, he meets them for the live feed in front of Wal-Mart Superstore with donated air time. He then receives a few phone calls updating him on the high school food drives in the Independent School District. They have challenged each other to bring in the most canned goods and they now need to schedule a pick-up and photo opportunity. The Toy Drives throughout the city are going quite well thanks to the many generous people who have organized their companies and businesses to help bring exciting trendy toys and clothing to children who would otherwise not have a Christmas morning.
A message is taped to his door about the parade at the Galleria Mall on Saturday with Santa. Elton makes a call to the bandmaster to make sure that he has enough volunteers from the corps band for the parade. He then for a moment takes a break in his office cluttered with mail, projects, financial statements, and Christmas cards that will have to wait to be addressed for a later time. Elton checks his online Kettle on his Facebook page. He is competing for the top kettle with all of his session mates for a gift card to Trade. So far, he seems to be leading the pack.
Elton takes the later afternoon to review his themed sermon series and drama sketches with the help of the annual Advent Resource book from the Central Territory. His desires for his messages to be thought provoking and insightful. The sketches, readings, poetry, are a great help especially when it doesn't have as much time for creative thinking as he usually does.
Glancing at his calendar, Elton reviews the upcoming dates of the Celebrity Turkey Carving with the local restaurants, national Kettle Kick-off, citywide Christmas concert, Officer Christmas party, Candy Wrapping for the prison facilities, as well as the citywide Annual meeting in the upcoming month.
Following this he takes a ride to greet some of the public bell ringer volunteers and heads to the local Oranges and Spice restaurant for dinner that is sponsoring a special holiday dessert with the proceeds going to the programs at Crestwood.
Before picking up the bell ringers at the kettles, he returns to the office for a few minutes to try and collect some creative ideas for the various Christmas parties with the Home League, Sunshine Center, Men’s Club, Senior Care facilities, Corps Cadets, Corps Council, Staff party, Advisory Board & Auxiliary, corps open house, the VA hospital, and the Sunday School which he still needs to find time to purchase gifts for and wrap.
The bell ringers are cold and numb but have enjoyed the day greeting people at the kettles. They have many funny or intriguing stories to share with each other in the van on the way back to Crestwood.
As he returns, Elton receives a call from Mrs. Ann Weston on his cell. She needs him to order a few more costumes for the Christmas Musical from World Trading. She doesn’t have enough sheep or angels for the amount of children who are now attending Sunday school. He is pleased that they are more children attending and hopes that he doesn’t forget this information before returning to the corps and having a chance to write it down on a post-it note.
Ms. Bates, the Community Care Secretary, calls as well and it is a rather long phone call. The distribution for four senior care facilities is on Sunday and she wants to make sure that the gifts were ordered which fortunately they were three months ago. She also wants to know if there are enough Christmas War Cry’s to distribute. He ordered 20 boxes so he reassures her and hopes so. She likes the plush dressed teddy bears that will be distributed to the residents that were service projects completed by several Church Women’s groups in the area and describes her favorite outfits in detail.
He walks into the corps with a large handful of kettles heading for the safe room. The police department has been very faithful in volunteering their time to monitoring the corps as the kettles are delivered each evening. He moves a large box of stuff stockings to a storage area with the other large cases for the Angel Tree delivered some time today. They were prepared by many ladies groups in the city for children. The stockings are separated by gender and age which include coloring books, crayons, candy, small toys, card games, school supplies, stickers, cars, dolls, and just about anything else a child would like.
Exhausted from the day’s adventures, Elton finally arrives home about ten-thirty and puts in some laundry as well as reloads the dishwasher. He fixes a cup of hot chocolate in the microwave. Elton checks the 43 messages on his phone and realizes that his mail box is full with 32 of those messages being from Lt. April Hawkins with questions about how to do the kettle program. He sighs because none of the messages are from Emma. He decides to return April’s call at a later date. He turns on the TV to catch up on one of his favorite shows and falls asleep on the couch a few minutes later ready to wake up in about six hours to start a brand new day.
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