The bagpipe, an Athens volunteer's answer to bell-ringing

<p>Among the throves of Salvation Army bell-ringers who have showed up at store doors across the country, one volunteer from Athens plays a different tune _ literally.</p><p>Dan Wilson plays a bagpipe to entice shoppers to drop donations into his red kettle.</p><p>And he's a lot more successful at that than the volunteers shaking the traditional handbells, according to Garry Williams, who coordinates the Salvation Army's kettle program in the area.</p><p>"He's a very popular bell-ringer, to say the least," Williams said, adding that Wilson gets about $100 donated per bagpipe-playing hour, $80 more than the average volunteer.</p><p>Wilson said he got into bagpipes during a trip to Scotland in 1989.</p><p>"The hair stood up on the back of my neck," he said of hearing bagpipers outside a castle in Edinburgh. "I wondered what it would feel like to take part in something like that."</p><p>Three years ago, the idea of playing for the Salvation Army started as a joke, he said, because he wanted to try to turn his talent with Highlands pipes into a holiday charity.</p><p>The first time he played for the Salvation Army, a woman dropped a $500 check in the kettle.</p><p>"That felt really good," Wilson said.</p><p>Performances like that outside a Sam's Club Friday, however, will not be a daily event for Wilson.</p><p>Because his bagpipe doesn't do well in cold weather, Wilson performs just three times during the holiday season for about two hours, he said.</p><p>The kettle program raised almost $49,000 last year in the Athens area.</p><p>The Salvation Army's annual Red Kettle fund-raising drive helps buy food for the homeless and toys for poor children.</p><p>___</p><p>On the Net:</p><p>HASH(0x1cdbd68)</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x1cdbec4)</p>