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March is Women's History Month!

Starting At Noon: Salvation Army Volunteers Go For Bell-Ringing Record

In Chicago: Antionette Levi rings her bell as she solicits donations for the Salvation Army.
Scott Olson
/
Getty Images
In Chicago: Antionette Levi rings her bell as she solicits donations for the Salvation Army.

They can't sit down. They can't eat. And they have to keep ringing their bells.

The Salvation Army says 24 of its volunteers will be going for a record starting at noon ET when they see just how long they can keep ringing their bells as they stand by collection kettles in cities across the nation.

The current world record for "the longest continuous hand bell ringing by an individual," according to the Salvation Army: 36 hours, a mark set in 2010 by Salvation Army Captain Kyle Smith in Spokane, Wash. (who will be defending his title).

Here's the list of participants and where they will be:

By the way, the ringers can take 10-minute bathroom breaks every four hours.

Related note: The Salvation Army also reports that some Good Samaritans are again dropping gold coins into the kettles.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.