The temperature had dropped below freezing, and shoppers were hurrying in and out of the store to stay warm.
Kim Lee was loading her groceries into her vehicle at the Walmart on State Road 135 in the Center Grove area when she heard it: her favorite Christmas carol being played on a brass instrument.
The Salvation Army bell ringer was playing “O Holy Night,” on a cornet.
Lee had donated to The Salvation Army’s Red Kettle Campaign before. But that day, Anthony Arquilla touched her heart playing her favorite song. She went back, stuffed more money into the red kettle and filmed the man that had made her day.
“It just stopped me in my tracks,” she said. “The rest of us were grumbling about the temperatures and he just continued to share his gift, to be kind and help others.”
For the last four years, Arquilla, 61, has carried his cornet around the county to play Christmas carols at red kettle sites for The Salvation Army. He plays “Silent Night” and “Have a Holly Jolly Christmas” on his cornet, sings the songs and rings the iconic bell to solicit donations from shoppers.
The Greenwood resident’s cornet has touched hundreds over the years. Arquilla sees the added touch as a way to honor Jesus and his birth.
“Let people remember Jesus is the reason we are celebrating,” he said.
About four years ago at the Sam’s Club in Greenwood, he had the idea to brighten shoppers’ day by bringing his cornet to play while he was ringing the bell for donations. He occasionally played his cornet at Monument Circle in downtown Indianapolis, while handing out Bibles to passersby.
Christmas carols might just help brighten people’s day, he thought.
“Now I play two, maybe three times a week,” Arquilla said.
Salvation Army volunteers that were part of the Christmas red kettle campaign traditionally played brass instruments, and ringing the bell was a back up plan for volunteers, said Charles Kennedy, kettle coordinator for Johnson County.
Bit by bit over the years, brass instruments fell out of use during the campaign and the bells took center stage for volunteers. What Arquilla offers is a slice of nostalgia, Kennedy said.
No matter the weather or the temperature, Kennedy can count on a full bucket from Arquilla and his cornet, he said.
Kennedy routinely puts Arquilla at some of the busiest sites in the county, because adding some extra zest to the bell ringing can bring in five or six times more donations than just ringing the bell, Kennedy said.
“That is why Tony is so great, even in the rain,” he said. “He stands out in the rain and the whole bit.”
Arquilla doesn’t mind playing in the wettest or coldest weather.
Sometimes his cornet chills to the point that he can’t play all the notes. He rests for a few minutes in the vestibule or wraps his scarf around the instrument to warm it up until it is ready to play again.
And the cold doesn’t bother him. The most cold he has to endure is during his eight-hour volunteer shift. Clients of The Salvation Army don’t always have a warm home to return to or a safe place to go, he said.
Thinking of those clients is one of the reasons he agreed to ring the bell on his days off from teaching English as a Second Language at the Central Nine Career Center and driving car parts across the county.
“I think of it as, well, it is a lot warmer than Antarctica and this is just temporary,” he said.
While he is playing the cornet, audiences will swarm around him, Kennedy said.
Arquilla plays songs from Christmas hymnals, and often talks to people who are touched that he picked a particular song to play while they were passing by with their shopping.
“Sometimes they come up to me in tears because the song means something to them,” Arquilla said.
What Arquilla does is a testament to goodness, Lee said.
“There stood this man whose dedication to The Salvation Army (was unwavering),” she said. “This man stood there, helping others.”
