On and off for more than 15 years now, a donor in the southern part of the county has left a generous surprise for Salvation Army bell-ringers, and that happened again recently.

In the Thursday, Dec. 19, edition of the Butler Eagle, we learned about a gold coin left in a red kettle in the Salvation Army’s Harmony-Zelienople unit. While officials didn’t offer a possible value, previous coins have been appraised at $1,500 to $2,000.

And there have been plenty of previous coins, though there was a break. The first such donation happened about 20 years ago, when an anonymous benefactor left a gold coin worth about $400 in a Butler-area kettle.

Such donations continued on and off until about 2020, when someone left a gold Krugerrand — a valuable South African coin — in a kettle in Zelienople. It was the seventh such coin left in that area.

In 2021 and 2022, no gold coins appeared, and Salvation Army officials feared their donor had either died or left the area. But last year, another coin turned up.

That one was Canadian and worth about $2,000.

Donating a high-value item to an organization like the Salvation Army can change lives, but you don’t need to have a gold coin to help. Anyone can donate, either by dropping money into a red kettle or by texting the word “Kettle” to 31333.

Giving what you can to those in need is a tradition everyone should support.

— JK