Pulling a rope the old fashioned way, Dale Winning pealed the bells at the First Congregational Church of Etna as part of the statewide “Bells across Pennsylvania Day” Sunday.
Churches bells or any bell, even a spoon hitting the pan, sounded for three minutes at 7 p.m. throughout the state.
Winning has been pealing the bells for 20 years including most Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. for the 10:15 service. “That’s how they did it when the church was built in 1849,” he said.
But on Sunday evening, the occasion was a good show of community spirit during the covid-19 pandemic. Sponsored by the Pennsylvania State Mayors’ Association, the bell ringing:
• Honored first responders, health care workers and employees of grocery stores, pharmacies and other life-sustaining businesses.
• Showed solidarity among elected officials and residents of communities
• Demonstrated a “collective resolve that Pennsylvanians will prevail over COVID-19 and work tirelessly to ensure that their businesses and civic life will thrive once again.”
Etna Councilman Rudy Milcic had his bells boxed away in another part of the house so he stood on his porch and made a long, almost ringing noise, hitting a pan with a spoon.
“This is good,” he said, “as long as we show our appreciation.”
In addition to Etna’s Mayor Tom Rengers issuing a proclamation for the observance of Bells Across Pennsylvania Day, other celebrants calling on residents and churches to ring bells including the mayors of Freeport, Lower Burrell and New Kensington, as well as Facebook posts from mayors and officials from a number of local communities including Baldwin, West Mifflin, Dormont and White Oak.
Also, as part of the event, residents were encouraged to recognize a hometown hero of their choosing with a telephone call, a note of support, delivery of baked goods and other “sheltering in place” activities.
