Today, the Ben's Bells Project is a non-profit organization located near the University of Arizona in downtown Tucson. The organization publicly recognizes community members who are nominated for "spreading kindness on a daily basis". Nominations are reviewed by a selection committee, and one "bellee" is announced to the public each week. Recipients receive a Ben's Bell and a gift pack. In addition, more than a thousand ceramic bells are distributed by volunteers two times each year, once in March to commemorate Ben's death, and once in September. Since its founding, Ben's Bells has distributed nearly 20,000 of the handmade ceramics. The Executive Director is Ben's mom, Jeannette Maré.
A printed card attached to each bell reminds the finder to "remember to spread kindness", and quotes Henry James, "Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind." The card on the bells distributed Thursday added, "We hang this bell in memory of those who died, in honor of those who were injured, and for all of us who live in and love this community."
Ben's Bells at the Site of the Tucson Shootings
Thursday morning dawned a chilly 45 degrees at the Safeway shopping center in northwest Tucson on January 13, 2011. Five days earlier, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords had hosted an event called 'Congress on Your Corner' here, an ongoing program to meet and discuss issues with constituents. The community event collapsed into chaos as a gunman opened fire, killing six and critically wounding Rep. Giffords and others.
President Obama addressed a memorial service at the University's McKale Center on Wednesday night, and before dawn the next morning, according to an article by Kimberly Matas in the Arizona Daily Star on Friday, January 14, more than 500 volunteers gathered at the Ben's Bells studio. Despite the chilly air and predawn darkness, these volunteers spread around Tucson, hanging 1,400 Ben's Bells in an effort to mitigate the community's grief.
Three hundred of these bells were hung in the mesquite trees around the parking lot at the site of the shootings. Police tape still cordoned off much of the lot, and television trucks were still present, as were sheriff's deputies and FBI agents, some of whom helped hang the bells, according to the article in the Arizona Daily Star.
By noon, the lunch crowd at Beyond Bread was overflowing, the sky was a cloudless cerulean and the temperature had climbed to 70 degrees. Almost all of the ceramic bells had been discovered and taken, but the warm breeze occasionally stirred the windchime tinkling of a hidden bell. My wife and I had just finished lunch, and were driving out of the parking lot when she spotted a bell high overhead. I stopped the car and she got out, staring helplessly at the bell which was well out of reach. She opened the door to get back in when a stranger pulled up, a young lady and her 10-year old son. She drove her car directly beneath the bell, got out, climbed onto the car's hood and retrieved the bell. Back on the ground, she handed the bell to my astonished wife. "This one's for you", she said, getting back in her car and driving away. My wife held the bell close, and we both realized this random act of kindness was now ours to pass on.
