Celebrity Chef Guy Fieri To Volunteer As Salvation Army Bellringer

SANTA ROSA, CA— Celebrity Chef and Santa Rosa resident Guy Fieri will continue his Christmas tradition of volunteering for The Salvation Army as a bellringer for the organization’s annual Red Kettle donation drive.

Fieri will man a red kettle — and ring a bell — to drum up on-the-spot donations from 11 a.m. to noon Saturday at Montgomery Village Shopping Center in Santa Rosa, not far from San Francisco where the Red Kettle program got its start in 1891 by a Salvation Army captain who resolved to provide a free Christmas dinner for 1,000 of the city’s most destitute.

Nowadays, the Red Kettle Program brings in hundreds of thousands of dollars every holiday season, providing pivotal funding for the countless programs that run yearlong, according to Grant Hansen, spokesperson for The Salvation Army’s Del Oro Division which encompasses Northern California and Northern Nevada.

As with all Salvation Army red kettles, donations made in a community stay in that community, and Fieri has had a footprint in Santa Rosa since the 1990s and is a frequent supporter of The Salvation Army.

In 2017, Fieri teamed up with The Salvation Army to provide meals to people impacted by the devastating North Bay wildfires and firefighters working the front lines. He has also been a long supporter of the Paint the Town Red Annual Civic Dinner hosted by The Salvation Army and has teamed up with The Salvation Army for National Donut Day, delivering donuts to first responders and law enforcement in Santa Rosa and surrounding Sonoma County.

“It’s this time of year, you hear the bells, you see the kettles, and hopefully you make a donation,” Fieri said in a video taken during last year’s event. “Most people don’t understand where this money actually goes and what it does but the Salvation Army is probably one of the neatest groups of people you’ll ever meet and they are really like the unsung heroes of our community in all the programs and all the support they give not just during the holiday but year-round.”