By Felicia Farnsworth
Every year at Christmas time you see them at the fronts of businesses ringing the bells. This tradition started in 1900 when a teenage volunteer, Amelia Kunkel, in New York City was fed up with the many bankers on Wall Street who walked by and ignored her. She decided she would buy a small bell from Woolworth’s department store for ten cents and the rest is history. Her thoughtfulness is what started the red kettle program and it has been going strong ever since.