The Red Kettle Tax

First, don't let the title of this post mislead you. I appreciate what the Salvation Army (hereafter referred to as 'the Army') does in local communities and understand the importance of the kettles to their overall fundraising campaign. My brothers-in-law have been ringing bells for the Army as long as I've known them and Hillcrest is even sending out some folks to ring bells on Wednesday nights in December. But for me, there are two inherent problems with the kettle drive:

• First, repeat trips to the same store. Say I go to Lewis Drug this evening to get stamps. There is a kettle there, I toss in my pocket change, the bell ringer says "Merry Christmas", and I get to go into the store. If I need to go to Lewis tomorrow, yesterday's visit is null and void. The bell ringer has inevitably changed, the new ringer knows nothing of my previous visit, so I feel the need to toss in some more change in order to get reenter Lewis.
• Second, trips to other stores with kettles. HyVee Grocery is across the street from Lewis. If I toss change into Lewis, and then head over to HyVee, that bell ringer knows nothing of my recent donation (short of an instanteneous text between bell ringers), and then there is the 'pressure' to toss change into HyVee's kettle. Soon, normal errands in Sioux Falls can take on a similar feeling as driving on Chicago's tollway, where one makes sure you have enough change to make it through the tolls!

So here's my suggestion (maybe the Army already does this, but if not, it might be worth a shot): sell a button dated with the year's holiday season (for instance, Christmas 2008) that one can wear on their coat or jacket. The button would cost more than what most people probably toss into buckets throughout the season, say $25, and the donor can freely enter stores of their choosing without having the hovering guilt of paying the holiday kettle tax! Who knows, the Army just might raise more funds as well . . .