KINGSTON–The Salvation Army’s red kettle drive had already begun quietly last week at places like Price Chopper and the Kingston Plaza, but that abruptly changed Saturday with the smashing of cymbals and the fortissimo accents of brass.
The city once again welcomed The Salvation Army’s highly esteemed New York Staff Band as a way to help the Kingston corps formally kick off its annual fundraising campaign for underprivileged families during the Christmas season.
Bell ringers will be out in force beginning on Black Friday, according to Kingston Corps Officer Rick Starkey, who has set a goal to raise $65,000 this year.
He brought the world-famous New York Staff Band in to set the tone for the month-long drive.
In addition to providing holiday dinners for the needy, The Salvation Army distributes gifts and toys to families facing financial hardships.
Starkey said the annual appearance of the band at the J. Watson Bailey Middle School in Kingston ushers in the spirit of the season.
“It’s also just an opportunity for the New York Staff Band to perform and to share their gifts and to be able to have people experience that and come together as a community and hear some good music,” he said.
While the band played select Christmas classics, much of its repertoire included classic medleys and crowd favorites like “The Stars and Stripes Forever.”
Ronald Waiksnoris, the bandmaster, said music always has been an important component to the ministry.
“The founder, William Booth, was a musician and all of his numerous children were musicians who wrote music, and out of that, came music, and particularly brass banding which was in vogue in Victorian England,” Waiksnoris said.
The band continues to be “motivated by their love of Christ, the essential ingredient in potential staff bandsmen when the group first formed under Commander Ballington Booth in the spring of 1887,” according to the band’s webpage, nysb.org.
“We’ve kept it going and it’s quite popular in the Unites States and around the world. Salvationists tend to be a singing army,” Waiksnoris said.
The New York Staff Band performs at least once a month in big and small cities and has an upcoming tour in Cuba in February.
Over the years, it has played at such venues as Avery Fisher Hall, the Buckingham Palace Forecourt, Madison Square Garden, Carnegie Music Hall and the Royal Albert Hall in London, England.
The band is made up of Salvation Army employees, officers and students–all of whom are volunteers, Waiksnoris said.
Being in Kingston was just another way to bring blessings to people in advance of the Christmas season and get them thinking of the ministry’s mission to serve those in need, he added.
“We’re here to help people. This is a time of great need. We have so many disadvantaged, poor people that the Salvation Army takes action to help. We do it year-round, but it’s important that there is some joy being spread at this time of year,” he said.
From the Hudson Valley News Network – Paula Mitchell
