The Clover 4H Club adopted a program of manning a kettle for The Salvation Army at Raley’s during the 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. shift.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Club lost the use of the facility where they met and became dependent upon using Zoom from their homes for their programs. As a result, their membership and activities were decreased, which made it difficult to keep up with their bell ringing program.

Their advisor spread the word to other clubs in the area to recruit bell ringers. Finally, the Willow Oak 4H Club Advisor volunteered to help them get the bell ringers needed. The Club offered to supply enough volunteers to assist the Clever Clovers, and between the clubs, they completed the program.

The members of several other 4H Clubs that signed up ended up ringing the bells at Bel Air.

In the future, it is hoped that more 4H members will choose to volunteer to become bell ringers to cover the 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. shifts at all locations. Ringing with singing would make manning a kettle for a group of 4H members more fun.

Prior to ringing the bells, 4H club members are given a lesson on ringing the bell which includes the history of how bell ringing got its start, 135 years ago in San Francisco by a Salvation Army Captain who had a goal to feed Christmas dinner to 1,000 of the poorest people of his corps, and how his problem was solved by a memory of his sailor days in Liverpool England where a large iron kettle, “Simpson’s Pot”, was located at the foot of Stage Landing and where passersby tossed a coin into it.

His money problem was solved by placing a large red crab pot at the Oakland Ferry Landing, at the foot of Market Street in San Francisco, with a sign that read “Keep the Pot Boiling.”