by Craig Dirkes
Mark W. Dreyer is an over-the-road truck driver from North Dakota who raises thousands of dollars each year for The Salvation Army by ringing bells at kettles in the Twin Cities.
Mark, 67, lives in the Badlands of North Dakota in the historic town of Watford City, near the Montana border. Every Christmas season, he schedules his truck routes to go through the Twin Cities so he can ring bells for The Salvation Army.
“I love helping,” he said. “It gets in your blood when you see the effect you’re having on people.”
Originally from the Twin Cities area, Mark moved to North Dakota in 2011 to work in the oil fields. He first started being a bellringer about 12 years ago while he was living in Spring Park, Minn., and working as a paid on-call firefighter for the nearby Long Lake Fire Department.
He became passionate about ringing bells about 10 years ago after taking a tour of the Minneapolis Harbor Light Shelter which provides food, emergency shelter and care for hundreds of people every day.
“My heart melted during the tour,” Mark said. “That place is the real deal. My interest in bell ringing
grew from there.”
Since then, he has volunteered hundreds of hours at kettles and has single-handedly recruited dozens of other bellringers to join him, many of them firefighters. Last season he rang bells at three Minnesota Vikings games and at a Vikings holiday event at TCO Performance Center. He plans to ring eight times this season.
He is excited to ring again this Christmas because “you see the good [The Salvation Army] is doing and you meet wonderful people,” he said. “They’re giving out clothing and food, and getting people off the streets. It’s inspiring.”
“One thing I always do is schedule a shift for the last day of bellringing, on Christmas Eve,” Mark said. “People really open up their pocketbooks.”
In addition to helping The Salvation Army, Mark is heavily involved with raising funds for many other charities including the Children’s Cancer Research Fund, Walk to End Alzheimer’s, American Cancer Society, and the Susan G. Komen Organization.
