Longtime Bell Ringer Keeps Ringing

It’s that time of the year again. Salvation Army and its bell ringers are all around town. Charles Hendrickson is one of them.

“It was just really a nice way to spend doing something I rather enjoyed,” said Charles “Chuck” Hendrickson.

Hendrickson has since retired from the Salvation Army as the director of disaster services in 2010 but found his way to bell ringing and hasn’t looked back ever since.

“Cause I spent 27 years of my life doing this. A bunch of that was meeting people working with people. I’ve had some tremendous experiences out there just because of the uniform.”

That bright red uniform and hat symbolize so much more to Hendrickson including his faith.

“Wearing the full uniform there’s no question where you stand. People will befriend you in ways that if you were just in a suit you probably wouldn’t hit it off with them like that.”

But it’s the children he sees that leave a lasting impression on him every time.

“I was standing here and a guy went out he was carrying his son and his wife was pushing the cart full of stuff and he looked over his dad’s shoulder and did the first kind of wave kids do.”

In the meantime he’ll just keep on ringing.