The kettles are placed and the trademark tiny bells can be heard throughout Selma, but the Salvation Army‘s Red Kettle Program is struggling to bring in as much money as it has in years past.

“The last time I compared the numbers on Friday, we were $3,400 behind this time last year,” said Major Steve Welch with the Salvation Army. “Last year we raised $39,000, but there were some good days last year that will be hard to beat.”

Welch said the drop in donations could be traced to the fact that Thanksgiving was a week earlier last year, and since the kettles cannot be placed in front of WalMart stores until the day after the holiday, that meant there was less time to gather collections this year.

“We had a week less at WalMart this year and that’s our biggest spot,” Welch said. “We’re really trying to catch up here a little bit. We will be between now and when the stores start to close on Christmas Eve.”

Chief Henry Allen is in charge of scheduling volunteers at the Army’s various kettles during the campaign, and said a drop in the number of individuals volunteering has also impacted the programs success.

“We don’t have the volunteers this year that we had last year,” said Chief Henry Allen with the Salvation Army. “We had a lot more individual volunteers last year that we just don’t have this year. We might be a couple of organizations short of what we were last year, but the individuals are way down.”

Allen said any individual or group looking to volunteer ringing bells between now and Christmas Eve is welcome to call him at 334-407-8746.