Daily Herald. Christmas in the States wouldn't be Christmas if I didn't have the chance to stuff money into the red kettle. As a young boy, every Christmas my father would give me a few bills to put in those kettles, always receiving a smile back from the bell ringer. Sometimes the littlest things mean the most, especially during the holidays. My parents told me on countless occasions of the kindness they received from the Salvation Army when they were refugees. My mom was pregnant at the time and sometimes her appetite could only allow her liquids such as soups, that the SA provided night and day. Imagine being forced to leave the country in which you were born and raised, going to a new place where not a single face is familiar and having people like those from the SA serve you the one thing that literally keeps you alive--food--with a welcoming attitude and a smile. It's the little things.
Posted by johnvu at November 15, 2004 12:41 AM