"Someone gave me a bag of chips once, but I was counting carbs at the time, so I didn’t eat them."
When Peter Rodakis strolled into the South Pasadena Publix wearing a Santa hat with no employee badge, nobody gave him a second look.
He grabbed the red kettle and stool from the closet and set them up outside the front of the store. Rodakis clicked on his “bell ringer” playlist and chimed his bell to the beat of Christmas tunes that played on the speaker.
Rodakis, 69, is a divorced man who lives alone. His Florida room is a shrine to the Boston Celtics. He collects Disney pins to trade. He reads his Bible every morning. Rodakis has volunteered for six years as a bell ringer for the Salvation Army, an international Christian social services organization.
All the money passersby drop into the red kettle goes to local groups supporting people in need, Rodakis said. He rings outside his local Publix and has signed up for about 50 hours nearly every season since he retired.
Read more at the Tampa Bay Times