Mixed with the dollar bills and loose change dropped in the Salvation Army's red kettles this Christmastime are less obvious tokens of generosity: gold coins, $50,000 from a "Secret Santa," lottery tickets and Viagra.
Every holiday season, sure as Santa mounts his sleigh at the mall, the Salvation Army bell ringers are out in force, stationed along the harried pathways of holiday shoppers across the country. Less certain is how many diamond rings or South African Krugerrands will be found in those kettles, but such things happen every year. (click below to read more)
Already, outside a Wal-Mart store in Colorado Springs, Colo., one kettle got a surprising delivery: a gold dental bridge. The anonymous gift included part of a tooth.
It is up to Richard Larson, a major with the Salvation Army there, to exchange the prize for cash. Over 20 years, he has become accustomed to seeing oddball stuff in the kettle, but that was a new one. "We kind of made fun of it," Mr. Larson said "because, it looks like teeth in the kettle."
On Nov. 29, in Joplin, Mo., five cashier's checks totaling $50,000 were wrapped in dollar bills and dropped in a kettle at a Wal-Mart store. In eight years, the anonymous donor has given $500,000, the Salvation Army said. Every year, the local bank requests a tax-deduction receipt on behalf of the "Secret Santa."
Valuable coins are common, too. Gold coins slipped into kettles of the Christian charitable organization in Richmond Heights, Mo., and Pleasantville, N.Y., could fetch about $1,200 apiece, officials said. In Buffalo, N.Y., a Civil War token (a "Bully For You" dated 1864) could bring $100.
A box of jewels given to a Salvation Army bell-ringer last month in Middletown, Ohio. Bryan L. DeMichael/Salvation Army
Odd donations of coins and other valuables are hit and miss, and obviously aren't limited to Salvation Army kettles. In New York, Housing Works thrift shops this year received an anonymous gift of a Ludwig Blum painting that later sold for $40,000, a spokeswoman said. But New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral, visited by more than five million people a year, hasn't seen a gold coin in donations boxes in recent memory, a spokeswoman said.
Ron Busroe, the Salvation Army's national spokesman, said many people give unusual items because they have been helped by the organization and want to support it but don't have money. He said the gold coins could have some religious significance related to the Bible story of the three wise men who carried gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the baby Jesus. "Haven't gotten much frankincense and myrrh in the kettle that I'm aware of," said Mr. Busroe.
Like most charities, the Salvation Army prefers donations in cash or check. Last year, the mostly volunteer army of 25,000 bell ringers raised a record $148.7 million.
Money dropped in a Salvation Army kettle stays within a community, and about 25% of individual corps' annual budget is raised through the kettle campaign, said Mr. Busroe. The money helps to cover the cost of buying toys, coats and groceries for the poor.
In 123 years, the holiday fundraising campaign has seen minor adjustments. Iron kettles gave way to a lighter-weight metal and now plastic. The coin slots have narrowed. Padlocks were added. A plan to accept credit-card donations didn't really work, officials said, as it didn't jibe with the spirit of a kettle donation: dropping in change and moving on.
Most kettle donations are dollar bills and pennies, and the task of tallying it is laborious. Inside a Salvation Army building recently in Newark, N.J., Darell Houseton, a Salvation Army lieutenant, was seated with two employees at folding tables in a drab, windowless room. Spread out in front of him were plastic shopping bags—a less attention-grabbing way of transporting money dropped in kettles.
As he stacked bills and ran coins through a counting machine, Mr. Houseton found just one item of "pocket debris"—a pill of some sort. He put it in an odds and ends tray, the contents of which mostly amuse Salvation Army officers and volunteers.
"I've gotten Monopoly money," Mr. Houseton said.
In Rochester, Minn., the debris goes into an "oddities jar." Across the country, Salvation Army officials said, kettle dribs and drabs include: euros, paper clips, guitar picks, toothpicks, screws, bolts, a sobriety coin, batteries, charms, tokens from Chuck E. Cheese's, casino chips, lottery tickets, distinctive blue Viagra pills, bandages, press-on nails and lint.
There are also a lot of rings. Often they drop in a kettle by mistake. The Salvation Army works to reunite people with jewelry.
Sometimes rings come with notes, like the wedding and engagement ring set dropped in a kettle outside of Wal-Mart in Biloxi, Miss., on Dec. 6. The two-page note said, in part: "Perhaps the Salvation Army knows of a Christian couple wishing to make a commitment—for life—to each other. If so, please give these rings to that special young man for his bride." The Salvation Army intends to hold a contest for the rings and host a modest wedding for the couple.
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