In the spirit of gift-giving during the holiday season, many people also choose to give back. 

“Many volunteers will come back every year and say, ‘This is my 18th year or my 19th year or I wouldn’t miss this,’ because they’re collecting money that will go to help their neighbors,” said Major Richard Starkey, director of county operations for The Salvation Army of Monroe County. 

And along with helping others, it is also helping the volunteers themselves.

“We get many people that will write back, or we put posts on social media and people say, 'Oh I did it last year,’ and the comment that always comes up is, ‘This was the best volunteering opportunity I’ve ever had,'” Starkey said.  

According to the American Psychological Association, those who volunteer may have lower blood pressure, live longer and tend to be happier since volunteering releases dopamine.

“You hear the same thing about people in the hospital, if you have a more positive attitude and you seem to heal better, get better quicker,” said Starkey.  

“So I think its reciprocal, you know the people we’re helping and the volunteers, it makes everybody feel better.”

Because volunteers know the work they’re doing is making a difference.  

“If it weren’t for volunteers we wouldn’t be able to raise anywhere near the money that we need,” he said. “When people volunteer for probably any non-profit, but for us, they’re really doing something that helps someone.”

And volunteers know they can help even more by passing that good feeling onto others.

“If you say hello to somebody, good morning, you make that contact then they kind of cheer up, good morning to you kind of thing," Starkey said.

Volunteers are spreading cheer through their community one bell at a time.  

“Having people help us and they get to be in the community where they really might not have had the opportunity," Starkey said. "I definitely think is something that lifts people up."