365daystogive's Blog

When I arrived for my assignment today, I walked around the department store and, like a fool, realized that I had walked right past the table.  There was an older gentleman sitting there in a white Salvation Army jacket and he smiled when I said that I was there to relieve him.  He carefully explained what I was to do.  For each piece of clothing donated the store would give one coupon for twenty percent off, up to four coupons.   If the customer wanted to get a tax-return slip I was to fill it out for them but, when he was walking out he confided that “if someone asks for that paper, they aren’t really donating, they are selling their items.”  And to that, I smiled, because I secretly felt the same way.

As I sat down, I knew I was in for a long four hours.  The soft elevator music threatened to put me to sleep but was I pleasantly resurrected every time someone came up to my table with an armful of clothes.  One woman told that she had donated to the Salvation Army every year for a long time, because when she was a young nurse they had often helped her with patients and their families.  Another smiled as she handed me a bright pink-infused wardrobe and said “I tried to bring clothes for spring.”

At first it took me a moment to figure out why there were so many donations of four items, and why there were some sheepish faces along with them.  These were women who, appeared to be, able to donate more than four but were unwilling to part with their items without a coupon.  Others brought in small bags of clothing while two women walked through the door with large black garbage bags bulging to the brim.  “I lost a lot of weight so I was able to give you all of these!”  “Well, then it is a win-win situation for both of us.”  She beamed back at me and happily accepted her four coupons.  About an hour later she walked by and told me that she had bought some smaller sizes and thanked me for doing my part.  What a great feeling, for both of us.

At the end of my shift, I had around one hundred pieces of clothing spilling out of the cardboard box next to my table.  It was well worth it to listen to elevator music, watch the customers go by and have so many people comment on all of the good things that the Salvation Army does.  I know one thing for sure, when Christmas rolls around this year I will definitely be giving some money to the bell-ringer that dutifully stands outside our Walmart.  It takes an Army, not just of volunteers, but staff and everyone else that makes the cogs of the Salvation Army turn.  And for a day, I was proud to be one of them.