Kiawnian at Salvation Army Kettle at Publix Bears Witness to Community's Generosity

Eddie Jenkins, as a representative of the Kiwanis Club of Greater Brandon, had the last shift on the last day for the Salvation Army donation kettle at the Publix on West Brandon Boulevard.

"On the first day I wore my Santa hat and today I'm wearing my Gator hat," Jenkins said. "The generosity is greater with the Gator hat. Everybody wants me to, 'Go Gator!' "

That's not to say the fans of the University of Florida football team out-donated the fans of the Seminoles from Florida State University. Indeed, Jenkins said, all donations are anonymous and some, from what he's been told, have been sizeable.

Jenkins offered his own perspective of a town's collective heart in a down economy from his vantage point of serving three, two- and a-half hour shifts at the red kettle at Publix. club members filled  volunteer slots from Dec. 18 through Dec. 24.

"Especially today, it's been very generous," Jenkins said about donations during his shift in the hours leading up to Christmas Eve services. "When you've got a difficult environment I find people give a lot more generously. There's an awful lot of people who have been out of work, a lot of people who lost their homes in foreclosure or just find it to be difficult times. People just want to come together and help each other whenever they can."

By no means, Jenkins stressed, should his word be taken as gospel truth.

"That's all I can say and that does not make me an authority," he added. "I'm just a concerned citizen trying to help wherever I can."

As a concerned citizen, Jenkins added, he is distressed about reports earlier this year about how the Salvation Army was spending its money. He noted the reports about Hillsborough County Commissioner Jim Norman's role with the organization and the amount of payment he received.

"I don't want to get into the politics that happened this year," he said, noting the issue that has played out in the press with both con and pro deliberations.

"Why do I look past these things?" Jenkins said. "Because I let God sort that kind of stuff out. That's not my position to do that."

Besides, Jenkins added, he had signed up to help and he was going to fulfill his obligations. Next year, he said, he'll take another look at the issue and decide what to do then.

As for this year, Jenkins' spirits are buoyed by the donations people have placed into the red kettle under his watch.

"I've spent 30 years in the military, so I've seen just a little bit of it all," said Jenkins, a Kiwanian for 23 years, in Michigan, Virginia, New Jersey and, for the past 13 years, in Brandon, where he also volunteers with the Emergency Care Help Organization.

He noted that while living in the District of Columbia, back in 1996, he met a man, scruffy at best, looking for money to buy a meal. Jenkins said he told the man: "I don't do that, but if you're hungry, come with me." The two ate a restaurant and Jenkins picked up the tab. And then the man asked Jenkins if he liked poetry.

 "I'm just making conversation with the guy and he asks me who my favorite poet is," Jenkins said. "I said, 'how about Edgar Allan Poe?' And he asked me, 'What poem do you like?' I said, 'Annabel Lee' and that guy gave me a rendition of 'Annabel Lee' I had never heard before and I have never heard again. He didn't skip a beat."

To this day, Jenkins added, "I'm just overwhelmed with what he did."

Turns out the man was an unemployed actor from off-Broadway, down on his luck like so many Greater Brandon area residents in this era of high unemployment.

So when it comes to giving to people asking for help on the street, Jenkins said he passes no judgment, but neither does he walk away.

"Not everybody out there is bad people," Jenkins said. "They just fell apart with hard times."