BY THE WAY: SALVATION ARMY BELL RINGER PLANTS GOODWILL

Her smile is as alluring and heartwarming as the Salvation Army's Tree of Lights.

It can be found at one of Wal-Mart's entrances from now until Christmas eve. "Hello. How are you today? Have a merry Christmas," Kristin Ham says about a few hundred times a day. That she can say it so often and sound like she means it tells us something about who she is and where she is headed.

For now she is one of 15 Salvation Army bell ringers assigned a position in Cape Girardeau and Jackson. The money dropped into their red pots will support various Salvation Army projects in 1994 and throughout 1995. It will also help turn the Tree of Lights into a seasonal spectacle.

The goal this year is $125,000.

Perhaps Ham, 27, should just look at this as another part-time job that requires little more than rote movement and repetitive greetings.

She seems to have found a way to turn the ordinary into an interesting diversion, however. "I like greeting people and working for a good cause," Ham said. "I hold the bell in my left hand because I'm left-handed. I can get a better rhythm that way. I'll switch every now and then, but I like to use the left arm more often because it sounds right."

She will do this job from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day until Dec. 24. "We get a half-hour for lunch and 10-minute breaks each hour. It's a lot of fun," she said without a trace of sarcasm. "The sun is shining and I'm doing something I enjoy."

This is her second year as a Salvation Army bell ringer. "I got involved with this after helping out with the Thanksgiving Day meal last year," she said. "I applied to be a bell ringer again this year after Thanksgiving and got hired."

She receives $5 an hour to ring a bell and encourage shoppers to plunk some coins or paper currency into the red pot.

"You only spend a few seconds with everyone who walks by, but even that can be interesting," she said. "People in this area are very friendly. That's why I've decided I'd like to live here."

A native of St. Clair, Mo., Ham came to Cape Girardeau to attend Southeast Missouri State. She already earned a degree in History and German from the College of the Ozarks. But she decided she was more interested in agriculture. So she graduated last May with a degree in that discipline.

"I really like working with gardens and planting flowers," Ham said. "I did that part time at the university after I graduated. I'll be doing it again in the spring with the hopes that one day there will be enough money to hire me full time."

Living from paycheck to paycheck might worry some people. But Ham seems relatively unaffected by the uncertainty of it all. "I'm giving it three years," she said. "If I can get a full-time job doing what I really love, which is working with flower gardens at the university, I'll feel very lucky."

For now she will do the best job she can for the Salvation Army. "It's a great feeling to smile at someone and then see them smile back," she said. "When they put some money into the pot, I feel like they're doing something good for somebody and I helped in a small way."

This being the holiday season, I want to believe that people like Kristin Ham will end up being paid for their true calling.

Maybe when all of the ornaments are stored and her part-time job with the Salvation Army is a distant memory, someone will find a job for her planting flowers in the spring.

"Springtime is my favorite time for planting flowers," Ham said, the rhythm of her gold bell and that infectious attitude planting another smile on the face of another shopper.

~Bill Heitland is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.