BELL RINGING

On Saturday my mom and I volunteered to ring bells for the Salvation Army outside Walmart. I've done this before a couple of years ago but this time it wasn't snowing or windy and definately not as cold.

Volunteering is great but what really stuck out during this experience was who put money into the bucket. Moms with children, especially if they were young were the most likely to give money. Usually they'd give it to their kids who would run up to the bucket but were not tall enough to put the money into the bucket. We got to see a lot of adorable kids this way though. Dads were less likely to give money but there was a significant amount who let their children give.

The moms weren't really a surprise, but I was thinking that women would be more likely to give then men. The opposite was true however. Young single women would just walk on by, usually on their cell phones, without even looking while other women with their husbands would glance....and then walk on by. Older women were more likely to put money in, and start up a conversation, but I expected that.

What really surprised me was how many young single men gave money. Most of them just gave the change from their purchase on the way out and then seemed embarrassed to acknowledge our thanks. They'd glance back and maybe nod, and then walk away fast like they didn't want anybody to see them. I have no idea why, because they should be proud of giving money.

There were a lot of random groups of people or a specific person that stood out for me. One such group was the Viking wearers. Every single person wearing some sort of Viking appearal gave money. One guy wearing a Vikings jacket gave money when he came in and came out. True, there were only four people in this group but none of the Packer wearing people gave. None. I really only paid attention to this because my dad has instilled in me the idea of Viking greatness, but it still stuck out.

The strangest person that gave money was a young guy wearing an maroon Iowa State marching band jacket. Over his long dark hair he was wearing a green plaid fedora. I don;'t remember how much he gave us, I was just surprised that someone looking like that would give money.

A guy in his late thirties gave money on the way in and on the way out. Then he bought a pop and gave us the change. He didn't look like the type of guy to give money yet he gave more times than anyone else did.

I'm not trying to tell a story with a moral or anything but I really learned a lot while ringing bells. The people I expected to give usually just walked on by, while people, such as the man wearing wearing coverall bibs whose hands who looked like he had been fixing something dirty, gave money. It really showed how you can't tell what a person is really like based on appearance.