Abby Callery, Staff Editor
It is not hard to find a Ben’s Bell product within the walls of Newtown. Almost every female has a bracelet or necklace. Also what about the car magnets? The majority of Newtown residents have at least one car magnet with either “Pray for Sandy Hook” or “Be kind” on it.
In January, the Ben’s Bells phenomenon began in Newtown. Based in Tucson, Arizona, Ben’s Bells are small ceramic beads, coins and bells, some with little sayings like “Be kind, step up.” The point is to deliver joy and kindness in small packages to the families of Sandy Hook.
‘Ben’s’ Bells is named after the founders’ child Ben who died at the age of three due to a bad cold. The family started to make these bells as a therapeutic strategy to cope with the death of their young son in their backyard. They conjured up new designs and would invite friends to help with the construction of these small, but meaningful, gestures of art. While creating these ceramic bells, the family and friends of young Ben decided to make hundreds to distribute around their town to encourage kindness. They were hung in random places, with notes to take them home and spread the kindness.
The non-profit Ben’s Bell’s Studio is led by Jennifer Avari and her children seven year old Hailey and five year old Zach. Located on 17 Church Hill in Newtown, the Ben’s Bell Studio is typically open every Wednesday from 10 am – 3 pm and 6-9 pm and on Saturday from 12pm to 4pm. But this winter they are opening the studio for a few extra days. On December 14 2013, the studio will be opened from 9 am until 9 pm. What better way to spend the year anniversary of the tragedy than around loving people making art that promotes kindness?
Aside from the studio, there are other ways to get Ben’s Bell’s items. The Toy Tree in Sandy Hook Center sells bracelets, necklaces, bells, magnets and other kindness goodies. “A lot of people buy the Ben’s Bells products because sometimes people will come into the store specifically looking for the Ben’s Bells products and only buy that. A lot of money is definitely made from it for the organizations.” NHS Junior and Toy Tree employee, Kate Fallon said. There are also occasional workshops held within schools. Volunteers from Ben’s Bells Newtown visited Hawley School on October 18 to teach and make Ben’s Bells as a school.
“Ben’s Bells is very effective in spreading kindness. Its unique way to simply make others smile. It takes a long process and many people to create a bead with the clay, put the clay in the kiln, paint them and string the bells,” NHS junior Brooke Hadgraft,said. A lot of work is put into to such a small gesture of kindness, but it is worth it.
“It’s very effective to know how many unselfish people took time out of their days to spread kindness and make others smile,” Hadgraft said.
You can even make Ben’s Bells from the comfort of your own home. The administrators have created a take home kit that can be shared with family members to share the kindness and work together as family to spread the word about being kind. “The products do an awesome job promoting kindness because the message behind each product is to simply spread kindness and people do this by purchasing the different things as gifts,” Fallon said. So during this holiday season, spend time with your family and contribute to the assembly of a Ben’s bell.
A cool product of Ben’s bells is the “kindness coins” also sold at the Toy Tree. “There are also kindness coins which people tend to buy a lot of at once like teachers will buy them for their class and give them to their students. The point behind these is that when you see someone doing something kind, you pass the coin on,” Fallon explained.
All it takes is one act of kindness to start a chain reaction. Spread kindness because it’s all that matters in the holiday season.
