When a judge ordered a local woman to do 20 hours of community service, she thought she would be picking up trash on the side of the road or washing a fire truck.
Instead, she’s ringing a bell near a famous red kettle, shouting “Merry Christmas,” and passing out her own peppermint candies to passersby at the Greenwood Park Mall in hopes that they’ll chip in a little extra money to help those in need this holiday season. And she’s earning community service hours while she’s at it.
Year after year, Johnson County has the most volunteer bell ringers in central Indiana for the Salvation Army’s annual Red Kettle Campaign because so many local volunteers come from the court system. It’s the only county in central Indiana where bell-ringing counts as community service.
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For most, court-ordered community service means cleaning the city’s streets or helping out with maintenance, but it can also mean volunteering with a local charity, said Tom Krukemeier, director of security at Greenwood City Court.
“Basically, the judge wants the people who are doing this to give back to the community where the crime was committed. Everything we do is helping out somewhere there is a need,” Krukemeier said.
Community service is often handed down in place of jail time to people who commit misdemeanor crimes or minor infractions, he said.
The Salvation Army is great about working around the volunteers’ work schedules. Hogan works odd hours for a catering company and has a toddler. The Salvation Army worked with her to develop a schedule around her work and mom duties.
“We try to do it the right way. We don’t want to dig into their pockets (affect their work schedules),” Krukemeier said.
The experience, though short-lived, has changed Hogan’s life, she said Thursday evening, still ringing the bell and greeting people coming and going near the mall’s food court.
In fact, she had already completed her community service hours on Thursday, but decided to continue volunteering with the Salvation Army’s Red Kettle Campaign through Christmas.
The experience dragged her out of the bubble she’s been in for so long, she said.
“I’m not a person that’s going to walk through a place and say, ‘Hey, how’s it going?’ to everyone. I might hold the door for somebody, but ‘Hi, Merry Christmas.’ That’s not me. The first day was really rough, but I got through it,” Hogan said.
“This taught me that I do have that personality in me. Over the years, I guess it’s just been hidden under all of the darkness. But this is bringing out that light that I remember from when I was younger.”
Hogan has had her fair share of run-ins with the law. Two years ago, the 32-year-old was arrested and charged with operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated, endangering a person, driving left of center and speeding.
Now she has a little boy, and she’s determined to turn her life around for both of them, she said.
“You grow up and you come across different kinds of people, drugs, alcohol, those kinds of things and that covers up your shine, and it did that to me. I’ve certainly had my struggles in the past. I’m not scared to put it out there. I can tell my own story a lot better now than I could two years ago,” she said.
“I’ve worked very hard to get where I am, and whenever I got the chance to do this, I was excited because even though it’s community service, it’s doing something good for somebody else.”
She’s already planning to volunteer again next year, something a lot of the court-ordered community service volunteers do, said Julia Osterberg, red kettle campaign director for Johnson County.
Court-ordered volunteers made up about 40 percent of total volunteer hours this year in Johnson County. About 20 volunteers have come to Osterberg from the court system, she said. They’ve raised about $8,000 for the campaign, which helps fund the Salvation Army’s efforts to feed and support people recovering from natural or personal disasters.
“I think a lot of them are very grateful for the opportunity to do their hours this way because they’re helping an organization. They felt like what they were doing was going toward a good cause,” Osterberg said.
“I try really hard to build good working relationships with people because I want them to come back. I wanted to make it feel like this wasn’t something that they were forced to do, because they would be happier being at the kettle. When you’re happier and have a better attitude, people are more likely to put money in the kettle.”
Locally, there are 12 red kettle locations, most of which are in Greenwood, and three in Franklin. Not all bell ringers are volunteers. Some are actually employed by the Salvation Army.
Johnson County has raised about $45,000 so far this year. Osterberg has faith the organization can reach its $75,000 goal by Christmas Day, she said.
Altogether, volunteers have worked more than 800 hours so far this year in Johnson County, which is about 300 short of last year. But most hours and donations come in the final days before Christmas, said Andy Amick, director of corporate relations for the central Indiana chapter of the Salvation Army.
“Johnson County is pretty much on par with where they’ve been, and that’s because there is incredible volunteer support down there. It’s the top county in central Indiana every year, hands down. Every year, there are more than 1,000 hours of volunteer work in Johnson County,” Amick said.
“I remember thinking, ‘Boy, we just don’t see this anywhere else.’ In my 10 years of doing this, I haven’t seen anything like it. Half of what we do down there is because of them.”
