Philanthropy Today
Philanthropy Today
Salvation Army Manhattan on the GMCF Community Hour Show Episode - 264
Karla Johnson shares how bell ringing, tap-to-pay kettles, and local partnerships fund year-round aid for families, students, and veterans in Riley, Geary, and Pottawatomie counties. We explore clear ways to volunteer, where the money goes, and why simple systems unlock big impact.
• Online auctions expanding into services
• Texas Roadhouse appetizer cards are driving donations
• Tap to pay kettles solving no-cash barrier
• Volunteer sign-up via registertoring.com with two-hour slots
• Eight local kettle sites plus new towns added
• Practical bell ringing tips and music etiquette
• Emergency aid for students with rent and utilities
• Help with car tags and taxes to keep jobs
• Prescription support through local pharmacy
• Veterans benefits navigation and claims support
• Clothing closet open, thrift store closed
• Angel Tree gifts due by the 18th or 21st
Please make sure you get those gifts to the store
Philanthropy Today is brought to you by the Greater Manhattan Community Foundation. In this episode, we feature a recently broadcast segment of the GMTF Community Hour, as heard on News Radio KMAN. We are back with the GMCF Community Hour here on News Radio KMAN. Carla Johnson is here. Carla is with Salvation Army as an outreach coordinator, and you'll see her a lot here during the holidays. Various storefronts, and I don't know too many people that bling out like you do.
SPEAKER_00:Well, good morning, Manhattan. Thank you. I I love my my bling.
SPEAKER_01:You're right. She's got a Holly Jolly sweater with uh sequins spelling out, oh, it's Jolly Holly.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Jolly Holly. And she's got a Santa hat that is reversible. And we have the green and silver on this side that we're looking at now because she's in front of the green microphone here in the studio, and it just seemed to make sense. With a power cat button on it.
SPEAKER_00:Yep, gotta have my power cat.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Is this your favorite time of year?
SPEAKER_00:This in Halloween. My birthday is in October. So I really love Halloween too.
SPEAKER_01:My brother's birthday is on Halloween.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, cool.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, he's a spook baby. Have you ever heard that term?
SPEAKER_00:Yes, I have.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, when uh when um my late wife was pregnant, we were, you know, daughter was due November 6th, and she says, Boy, I hope she doesn't come early. I don't want no spook baby. But uh anyway, hey, we're here to talk about uh Salvation Army. And there's been a lot of change with Salvation Army here locally in the last few years. You're an outreach coordinator, and you know, you're involved right now with the bell ringing, and we'll talk about that today. But let's talk about some of the the stuff that Salvation Army is doing and some of the changes that uh you've uh undertaken in the last couple of years.
SPEAKER_00:Well, as an outreach coordinator, I am a paid contractor. I'm not an actual Salvation Army employee. I do fundraising and PR, such as this interview. Uh, we had an online auction and it ended the day of our kettle kickoff, November 13th. Our goal was to raise$800 for the gift cards that we were donated. And we ended up uh raising$545. So that was still pretty good for our first ever online auction. We will be having a second online auction that'll start in November, uh not November, sorry, February. And the um the theme for that one will be Love Beyond. And it will be not just restaurants. We're gonna have some different um, hopefully like uh car washes, oil changes. I've been pledged a car detail ship, car detailing from John Murdoch Auto, which is where my son works, and you know, just different things like that uh from around the community. And like I said, that'll start in February. We also have a new uh fundraiser going on with in conjunction with Texas Roadhouse right now. We have um business cards that says present this card for a free appetizer with purchase of an entree and choose from the cactus blossom, fried pickles, tater skins, rattlesnake bites, or cheese fries. Then when you get your free entree, you make any type of free appetizer. Free, yeah, free appetizer with the entree. You make any type of donation, whether it's a dollar on up, that donation amount comes back to Salvation Army. Wow. And that is good, I believe, just here in Manhattan at the Texas and it's good through uh September.
SPEAKER_01:Correct. So I'm I looked at that. Yeah, because I want to make sure ahead of time frame. Where do you get these, Lou?
SPEAKER_00:Um, right now I have a box and we have a box down at Salvation Army. Um, so you can get a hold of your bell ringers have them? Um, no, we don't. I probably should give them to our full-time bell ringers.
SPEAKER_01:I'm bell ringing here this week.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, I could give you a few if you wanted to pass them out if anybody wants those.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, all right. And in addition, do you do you still give like the candy canes and if anybody comes in with a donation? You used to do that years ago, so yeah, it's better.
SPEAKER_00:I haven't done that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, okay. Well, we've got um, you know, you have goals, you know, fifty thousand dollars is a goal for fundraising too.
SPEAKER_00:It was keyboard. We were we were doing really good before the couple of cold snaps hit. We were getting about a thousand dollars a day, and that's that's really fell off with the the cold weather, and a lot of our full-time or our paid bell ringers have been sick. Uh, this this past Saturday, we did really well with the volunteers. All of the kettles had almost full of money, which was just a joy to to pick those up. Um, there's two kettle coordinators, of which I am one of the other uh kettle coordinators. She puts the kettles out in the morning as well as the battery packs for the four tap and pay stations we have. And then she puts out any aprons and bells for volunteers that might be there that day. And then I pick them up in the evening and take the battery packs out and you know, gather the aprons and bells and take them down to the office and lock them up. Um, new last year was the first year that we had tap to pay because so many people is like, oh, I don't have any cash. I'll try to get cash in the store. And then they forget and you know, they don't donate. Goes. So last year was the first year that we had tap to pay. It's has a battery pack in it, and the amounts of five, 10, and 25 are predetermined. And you can just tap your credit card, or if you have um Apple Pay or Google Pay on your phone, you can just tap your phone on one of those amounts.
SPEAKER_01:One of these days I'll learn how to do that.
SPEAKER_00:And um, it just beeps and it takes it out of, you know, your credit card, your debit card, your Apple Pay, whichever. And that's really easy, but it has a huge battery pack on it. And I guess last year some of the battery packs did get stolen. So we're we're really vigilant about that this year, not not having that happen and hasn't hasn't been a problem so far.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. I'm gonna be a bell ringer. There's other slots for people to sign up.
SPEAKER_00:Correct.
SPEAKER_01:How do they do that?
SPEAKER_00:You go to register to ringto ring.com, and the slots are two-hour slots. You can choose from Dylan's East and Dylan's West. There's two uh two doors at two kettles at Dylan's West. Walmart has two kettles, Hive has two kettles, and Hobby Lobby has one. So there's eight different kettles here in town.
SPEAKER_01:Go at each entrance of those of those doors.
SPEAKER_00:And then there's also kettles in Junction City, Wamigo, and then new this year, we have kettles in Onega and Westmoreland. Really? And the money raised in each community stays in that county. So the money raised in Onega, uh Westmoreland and Wamigo stays in Pot County. Everything raised in Manhattan stays in Riley County, everything in Junction City stays in Geary County.
SPEAKER_01:Good to know. Is that new this year?
SPEAKER_00:Uh no, no, it's always been that way.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. All right. I learned something new with you today. Thanks, Carlett.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I think it's really, really neat that we have the the two new towns that we're expanding to.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. Say someone's listening and says, Hey, I want to ring bells for Salvation Army. What tips do you have for them?
SPEAKER_00:Have fun with it. Dress warm, of course. Yeah. Make sure your feet are warm. Wear gloves. Oh yeah. Um I mean, I I dress up. I you don't have to wear a sparkly Santa hat, but I'd say wear it.
SPEAKER_01:I have a purple one. Is that all right?
SPEAKER_00:Oh, yeah, definitely. In this town, I'd say not red and blue.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. Okay. Red, green.
SPEAKER_00:Red, red and green is perfect.
SPEAKER_01:Um, you know, we nobody wears blue Santa hats.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Not in Riley County.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Um, we will provide an apron. You know, this is uh volunteer. We provide a bell. I mean, I I'm usually inside, so I have this little wrist bell because when I'm at Hobby Lobby, if I write bring a blue loud one.
SPEAKER_01:Where can I get one of those?
SPEAKER_00:Um I think this one at Hobby Lobby, but I think they have some at uh Dollar Tree. Okay. But we provide them. Oh, okay. We provide them with the the aprons that we have at the stands for the volunteers. Most places will let you play music if you have a Bluetooth speaker.
SPEAKER_01:I have a lot of speakers.
SPEAKER_00:I I bet you do, Dave.
SPEAKER_01:You probably have playlists.
SPEAKER_00:You have probably most speakers of anybody in town.
SPEAKER_01:I'm in the top 10.
SPEAKER_00:I would say so. But yeah, and I play Christmas music. Uh, you know, I tell everybody good, you know, good morning, good afternoon, have a good day.
SPEAKER_01:No thriller. No, somebody's watching me.
SPEAKER_00:No, no, nothing like that. Um and I usually used to let kids ring my bells, uh-huh, but with so much sickness going around, I have a second one. I just sat down on the very and let them use that one, and then I have my own so we don't transfer germs.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So how many times are you gonna be doing bell ringing? You're out there every day, aren't you?
SPEAKER_00:Most, almost every day, yes. We we ring um every day but Sunday up until Christmas Eve.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. All right.
SPEAKER_00:And I I go kind of sort of wherever they need me.
SPEAKER_01:How many different outfits do you have?
SPEAKER_00:Many outfits?
SPEAKER_01:Uh-huh. I mean Do you duplicate any?
SPEAKER_00:Oh, yes. Yeah, I have about six different Santa hats. You know, and this one, this one, you know, has the two different mermaid sequins and is that what they're called? Yes, that's what they're called.
SPEAKER_01:I was thinking of candy stripes.
SPEAKER_00:But it's mermaid sequins because it's one side, one color, and then you flip it and it's got a different color the other side. I have about ten I have about ten different Christmas sweaters.
SPEAKER_01:Uh-huh. Okay. Are they uh ugly? Are they gorgeous?
SPEAKER_00:I have a couple ugly sweaters, what they call.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Does the uh apron cover up the ugly sweaters enough?
SPEAKER_00:I don't wear an apron. I just wear my name tag.
SPEAKER_01:Oh. But the volunteers don't have a name tag. Yep.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, you could probably just wrap it around your waist and show off what you're wearing.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I know there's one one family a couple years ago. Um, the mother dressed up as Mrs. Claus, the dad was a Christmas tree, and their little daughter was an elf. I mean, if you have a Grinch outfit, that would be perfect.
SPEAKER_01:I don't have a Grinch outfit. I have a cat in the hat, or at least I used to.
SPEAKER_00:That would be cool.
SPEAKER_01:I do have Santa. I do have Elvis. I don't have a Christmas Elvis. That would be fun. I could do that sometime.
SPEAKER_00:You could do Elvis with the purple Santa hat.
SPEAKER_01:Hmm. Yeah, I don't have purple on my Elvis. It's it's white with red and such, but the red Santa hat, that might work.
SPEAKER_00:That would work, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I'll have to think about that. I don't know if it's warm enough. Put put long johns on it. Well, I'm pretty good about keeping those in stock. I've been going through a lot of those lately. Well, let's talk about uh some other things here. Um, you know, and specifically about Salvation Army and some of the assistance that you provide. Things have changed with Salvation Army. You don't have the store downtown like you used to, but you have a facility that that is there to assist people in various needs. And of course, you know, you help people out with, you know, whenever there's a fire and different things like that. So let's talk a bit about some of the some of the needs that you help fulfill in the community.
SPEAKER_00:One thing that we do differently than any of the other um agencies that provide emergency assistance is we help college students. Um most college students, you know, aren't considered residents of Riley County. So we can help them, whereas a lot of the other agencies don't with their um, you know, rent or utility, something like that. And another thing we uh can assist with is um helping somebody get their tags and taxes on their vehicle because if you can't drive your vehicle, you can't get to work. And that's just gonna create uh, you know, a worse cycle of you know, not having the money, not paying the bills, etc. We also, you know, help um if somebody needs a prescription, we have a partnership with buried drugs downtown that we can help out that way also.
SPEAKER_01:It's nice when you got local people helping local people.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_01:Now you're you're past military. Are you retired?
SPEAKER_00:Uh no, just a disabled veteran.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:And so I I do um when anybody comes in that's military affiliated, I can either help them myself or I have you know a network that I can try to send them the right direction. I I'm a certified claims agent with um disabled American veterans. So if they need, you know, to file a claim or, you know, try to get increased disability, I can get that started for them.
SPEAKER_01:I think that's how I first met you as you were with DAV.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I still do that.
SPEAKER_01:I still do that. Okay. All right. What inspired you to get involved with Salvation Army?
SPEAKER_00:Susan Evans is the director, and she's been my pastor for 12, 13 years. I'm not sure however long, but just kind of followed her in there and works out well. Mm-hmm. Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Well, you always bring a smile and a cheery look to wherever you are ringing bells. What's your week like this week?
SPEAKER_00:Well, I want to say one more thing about uh the downtown. We don't have the thrift store anymore, but we still have the closed closet upstairs. We just give everything away. We're not accepting donations right now because it is just so packed full. And the downstairs is full of all the angel tree gifts. If anybody has um taken one of the angel tree tags, I think that the gifts have to be in by it's either the 18th or the 21st. Okay. So please make sure you get those gifts um to the store. But um I have a couple doctor's appointments this week, but other than that, I will be out ringing the bell as much as possible. And the the weather's gonna increase, you know, be much warmer. I'm thankful for Saturday. I I got the got a call saying it's cold, it's just going down, it's 19 degrees. Go pick the kettles up at five o'clock. I'm like, oh, okay, I'll do it. And everybody was done by then. And you know, it was nice that they were full of money, even though it was that cold.
SPEAKER_01:So all right. Well, you bring Christmas spirit to everyone you see. Thank you for doing that, and thanks for the work you do with Salvation Army and DAV.
SPEAKER_00:Well, thank you very much, and everybody have a Merry Christmas.
SPEAKER_01:Amen. Carla Johnson is her name. She's the outreach coordinator for Salvation Army. Always a joy to have her in the studio. Jay Nalu Krachenko is in next. We're going to get an update on the activities that are coming up in the near future. There's a bunch of them, not necessarily here during uh the remainder of December, but we'll give you a preview of some things happening in January as well. It is the GMCF Community Hour. We do this every Monday morning in the 10 o'clock time frame on News Radio.