Pam Callan’s family knows it is the Christmas season when the holiday music begins playing at their suburban Detroit home—in July.
“I am the Christmas nut in my house,” Pam acknowledged. “I start my Christmas shopping in July. I play Christmas music, and we watch Christmas movies.”
She has brought that holiday spirit to kettles during the last five seasons. And she’s thrilled to be back at the kettle again this year.
Armed with a variety of bells, her own speakers to play music and a big smile, Pam has become a well-known bellringer outside of her local Kroger grocery story.
“I have had people tell me they walked into the store in a bad mood but walked out singing a Christmas carol I had been singing,” she recalled. “I know how important it is to have that enthusiasm. I am full of the Holy Spirit.”
Pam often dances to the holiday tunes she plays and shakes the bells along to the beat. Her enthusiasm has brought about a few “incidents.”
She has cracked a brass bell, blown out a speaker and has gotten “bellringer elbow, just like a tennis player,” she said through laughter.
But nothing stops her from her kettle shifts.
It all began when her husband Tom joined The Salvation Army’s Metro Detroit Advisory Board.
“He said to me ‘I think this bellringing thing is your gig,’” Pam recalled.
During her first kettle season she signed up for 12 hours, and regretted not signing up for more.
The following year, she signed up for 20-25 hours and now is at 40 hours each season. She is sometimes joined by her 24-year-old daughter Grace, one of her four children.
“Grace understands what the mission is and how important the job of volunteering at a kettle is,” Pam said. “She loves to come and sing with me.”
Pam isn’t shy to encourage others to experience the joy of bell ringing. In fact, last year, The Salvation Army in Detroit named her Bell Ringing Ambassador.
At the beginning of this holiday season, Pam appeared on the local TV show “Live in the D” with Metro Detroit Area Commander Major Toni Dorrell. The two of them were recruiting kettle volunteers.
“It’s so easy to sign up. And the impact of just a two-hour shift—what The Salvation Army can do with that money—is astronomical,” Pam said.
