EL PASO, Texas (KVIA)\u2014 Bell ringers with the Salvation Army help raise thousands of dollars for the organization each year. You\u2019ll find them beside red kettles outside stores during the Christmas season.<\/p>\n
ABC-7 met a local family that has been volunteering with the Salvation Army for five generations.<\/p>\n
El Pasoan Esther Sanchez she grew up ringing the bell. The tradition was started by her grandmother, who was a Salvationist. Sanchez said she loves volunteering and carrying her family\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n
Sanchez volunteers at least once a week during the Christmas season. She loves bringing Christmas cheer to all.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeeing how people sometimes will not have such a smiley face, and as soon as they see us, they hear the bells ringing. They have a little smile on their face, and then they know that they’re going to be supporting people here in El Paso who need the help,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The tradition now spans five generations. Her daughter and grandchildren now join Sanchez in ringing the bell.<\/p>\n
Jessica Sawyer told ABC-7 she remembers volunteering all those years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is just something we’ve always done for as long as I can remember. Ringing the bell. In high school, I played instruments. And so we’d bring our instruments out, play Christmas carols while we were at the kettles, and just having a lot of fun and just spreading some Christmas joy, which I feel like we always need all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, she\u2019s excited that her own children will be creating similar memories.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey love coming out. We sing Christmas carols and just spend time together as a family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sawyer\u2019s children also said they enjoy spreading Christmas cheer to all and bringing a smile to people’s faces during the holidays.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel very happy that we get to interact with people and talk to them. And share the love of God,\u201d one child said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel blessed that not a lot of people get to do this together. So I’m happy that I’m with my family and friends,\u201d another added.<\/p>\n
All the money donated to the Salvation Army stays local and helps fund programs year-round.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL PASO, Texas (KVIA)\u2014 Bell ringers with the Salvation Army help raise thousands of dollars for the organization…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85692,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139],"class_list":["post-85691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}