Holiday Spirit Rings True in Century-Old Tradition of Caring

Donning a red Salvation Army bell ringer jacket, Keysi Martinez stands beside his Christmas kettle station at Farmer’s Market on the first Saturday of the Christmas shopping season, greeting passersby with an endearing smile and warm “hello.”

Not everyone walking by reciprocates or drops loose change in the red kettle, but the Reseda High School senior repeats the greeting countless times throughout the day with the same demeanor.

Martinez, 18, who lives with his grandmother in Hollywood and attends the Salvation Army’s Hollywood Temple Corps church, has been the youngest Christmas kettle-keeper in Hollywood for three years in a row.

And he loves it.

“You feel joy because you’re involved,” said Martinez, whose dream is to become an architect. “I learn so much by volunteering.”

Around the corner from him, Ninette Hernandez, wearing an identical red jacket, works another kettle station, reaching out to shoppers with an engaging smile. Hernandez, who moved from her native Guatemala to Los Angeles in 1982 when she was 8, says volunteering her services has renewed her faith in God and humans.

On her first evening as a kettle-keeper two weeks ago, she shivered as she stood in front of a supermarket in the Fairfax district, ringing her bell, she said.

“An elderly man comes up to me and says, ‘Honey, you look cold,’ ” she recalled.

Minutes later the man was back with a sweater for her to wear.

“He stood beside me for a while to make sure I was all right before he left,” she said. “He made my day. He lifted my faith in God and people.”

The period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day traditionally is the biggest fund-raising time of the year for nonprofit organizations.

And as the season kicked off this weekend, hundreds of Salvation Army kettle-keepers in the Los Angeles area stood on street corners accepting money for the needy.

The Salvation Army hopes to raise $1.6 million in the Los Angeles area during the Christmas season, according to Capt. Carol Seiler, divisional social services secretary.

Seiler said the organization will provide 375,000 people in the area with food, toys and gifts during the holiday season.

She anticipates an increasing need in the months ahead for people who will be cut off from food stamps and other government programs for the poor under welfare measures signed into law by President Clinton.

“People are most aware of us during the holiday season, but we work throughout the year,” said Capt. Doug Danielson, pastor of the Spanish-speaking Hollywood Temple congregation.

Hundreds, like graphic artist George Benson, are giving.

“I lived pretty close to that edge myself,” said Benson, after pushing a dollar bill through a kettle slot. A native Angeleno, Benson said he would like to see the Salvation Army kettles on street corners not only during the holiday season but all year.

“The Salvation Army has been doing good things for a long time,” he said, adding that he is partial to the organization because it spends almost all of what it receives directly on the needy.

“Some charities have a high overhead, but not Salvation Army,” he said.

Ninety cents of every dollar donated to the Salvation Army goes to help the needy, according to Fortune magazine.

Donna Batten, a tourist from Willowbrook, Ill., also pushed a dollar bill into Hernandez’s kettle, saying she usually cannot pass one without putting something in it.

“They help a lot of people in need,” she said.

Founded in 1865 by Methodist minister William Booth in London, the Salvation Army is structured like a military organization. Ordained ministers are officers and wear uniforms.

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The Christmas kettle tradition was started in San Francisco in 1891 by Salvation Army Capt. Joseph McFee, who wanted to provide free Christmas meals to the poor.

The tradition makes a new generation of Salvationists like Hernandez feel proud.

“Whenever someone comes up to the kettle and says how much the Salvation Army helped someone they knew, I’m so proud to be part of something that’s good to people,” she said.

Martinez said working the Christmas kettle for three seasons has helped him overcome his shyness and made him a better communicator.

“I used to feel embarrassed when people just walked by when I said hello,” he said. But no longer.