Red Kettle campaign starts in Rochester

Thanks sean.

Happening today.

You'll start hearing some more holiday sounds when you're out and about.

Kimt news 3'smadelyne watkins has the details on the official start of the red kettle campaign and the goals the rochester salvation army has for this year.

It's time to gather all your loose change you've been collecting because the salvation army's red kettle campaign to rescue christmas is officially kicking off today!

When you hear this sound... you know christmas is just right around the corner.

But this year... it's going to look a little different.

In rochester... you'll see 20 red kettles on display across the med city.

And those kettles need volunteers working them ?

"*?

"* which there are fewer this year because of the pandemic.

Major bob mueller with the rochester salvation army tells me they need to fill six thousand hours of bell ringing in six weeks and raise 960 thousand dollars... an amount lower than what they raised last year.

"last year, we had a record year and we raised 1.26 million dollars and we're so grateful for that.

This year because of the pandemic, we have budgeted 300,000 dollars less, so we're down to 960,000 dollars.

So we're really hoping that we can still rally the troops and get out there and achieve our goals and that we continue to meet this need in the rochester area."

If you don't have any loose coins or money laying around because of the pandemic coin shortage..that' s ok!

You can still donate right through your phone.

All you do is you'll tap the qr code that's on the sign and then you can pay contactless through apple pay or google pay.

In rochester.

Madelyne watkins kimt news 3.

Volunteers will be ringing bells at all the red kettles up until christmas eve.

If you would like to volunteer... you can head to our