caption, page 6

 

 

Emily Ross and Evan Wood of The Woodstock Academy ring the bells at Walmart on Dec. 17. Linda Lemmon photo.

 

'Ringing'

in big

donations

By Linda Lemmon

Town Crier Editor

Even the snow. Even the ice. Nothing could keep a determined group of young people from ringing the bells to raise money for the local Salvation Army office.

With a stack of empty hot beverage cups at their feet, Emily Ross and Evan Wood, both freshmen at The Woodstock Academy, stood grinning, ringing the bells at the Putnam Walmart entrance.

"It's been fun --- a little cold though," said Ross. Wood said both he and Ross are members of the Sparrow Club at the academy. The community service coordinator at the academy, Amanda Rice, emailed members of service clubs at the academy and asked them to help the Putnam Regional Interact Club with its fund-raising mission.

Co-Chairman of the Putnam Interact Club, Roberta Rocchetti, said the students members of the club, with their classmates and friends, have been ringing the bell for the Salvation Army since 1997.

She said they have raised more than $180,000 over the years. "We are the only source of revenue for the local Salvation Army office," she said.

Monique Mailloux, co-chairman, said that there were 102 students taking part this year and as of last week, the bell ringers had raised about $4,700. That total does not include what the stalwart bell ringers raised Dec. 17 and Dec. 24.

Adults that helped included Mike Rocchetti plus Rotarians Jonathan Trembly, Deb Hoft, Marc Archambault (club president), Mailloux and Rocchetti. 

Rocchetti said students came from Marianapolis, The Woodstock Academy and Woodstock public schools, Putnam High School, Putnam Science Academy and Killingly High School. Adults from Ashford school and the Putnam Rotary Cub took part. "It is truly a community project," Rocchetti said. 

She added that the bell ringing starts the Friday following Thanksgiving and is conducted each Saturday thereafter including the morning of Christmas Eve, totaling five weekends.

Ross said it went well, even considering the snow and then ice cold temperatures Dec. 17. She estimated that every other person walking by the famous red kettle donated.

She said she especially enjoyed watching the children donate. The funniest donation attempt was a little girl who tried to put a dollar bill, kept flat, into the small slot in the top of the kettle. "I had to show her how to fold it so it would fit," Ross added.