Historic Bell Chimes Again at Armstrong School

Jingle bells jingling? Not quite.

Sleigh bells ringing, people listening? Almost.

School bell being rung on a special occasion by a community icon for the first time in decades? Oh my, yes.

BY ROGER KNOX, VERNON MORNING STAR (Reprinted with Permission)

The staff and student body at Armstrong Elementary School (AES) – aka The Brick School – gathered outside the school Friday, Dec. 20, joined by more than 100 community members, to listen to the school’s historic, refurbished, replaced, old bell chime away in the bell tower after being silent for years.

Pulling the rope to ring the bell was Helen Sidney, who taught at the school for 41 years. She turned 102 on Christmas Eve.

“This was a home to me for 41 years, I didn’t want to leave,” said Sidney, who was forced to retire from teaching at age 65. 

She was accompanied by her daughter, Marge Sidney, who got to pull the old bell as a Grade 4 student.

“Students who achieved something special got to ring that bell,” said Marge, who couldn’t remember what she accomplished. “It made me feel important.”

After Helen rang the bell, she was accompanied outside by Marge so she could hear the bell ring. That second ringing honour went to AES kindergarten teacher Heather Ramsey, who taught at the school five years longer than Sidney, who was Ramsey’s Grade 1 teacher.

After the bell-ringing – which had noted dancer Sidney the centenarian bopping away – most of the crowd and students gathered to give her a hug and to say hello.

“This is so great to me,” said Marge of the community showing up for the event. “There’s a lot of memories in this bell and school.”

Current AES principal Val Edgell – playing hurt Friday with a broken wrist – told those gathered that in anticipation of the school’s 100-year anniversary in 2021, plans started being made to replace the original bell, which had stopped working properly, with a replica.

Nor-Val Rentals of Armstrong (now Sunbelt Rentals) donated a scissor lift to allow employees to get a closer at the original bell to get a better idea of what to replace it with.

It was Ramsey who found bell experts Brosamer’s Bells Inc., the world’s largest dealer of antique, historic, and used bells, located in Brooklyn, Mich., an 80-minute drive west of Detroit.

“The owner took an interest in our endeavour to get a bell,” said Edgell. “His family had been collecting antique bells for generations, and he remembered one particular bell from his dad’s collection. Only the owner knew they still had this bell.”

What Brosamer’s Bells Inc. had was a beautiful brass copper green bell, one that seemed to be the right size and shape for Armstrong Elementary.

“They rang it for us, and Mrs. Ramsey declared it had the perfect ringtone and this was the bell we needed to get,” said Edgell. 

The problem, though, was the owner wanted someone to drive to Brooklyn to pick it up. With the help of Armstrong Spallumcheen Chamber of Commerce executive director Patti Noonan, a way was found to ship the bell to the North Okanagan and get it through customs.

That was the first hurdle. The second was installing the huge bell in the school’s tower.

Over the years, duct work for heating had been installed in the tower attic but school district crews, led by Mel Cooper, found a way to get the heavy bell installed into the tower, leading to Friday’s ceremony. SEE MORE BELOW

Edgell said the bell will ring again at the school on special occasions.

Behind the Scenes and Installing the Bell

As mentioned, re-installing the antique bell was a bit of a feat as over the years and as standards changed, duct work for heating had been installed in the tower attic.

SD83 carpenters Jon Paull and Mel Cooper, assisted by the district’s Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) team, were responsible for planning and carrying out the installation of the antique bell, explained SD83 Facilities/Grounds Manager Trevor Bettcher.

“It took quite a bit of planning. They modified an old platform to work off of. Then they hoisted the bell up in stages to the tower. Jon and Mel are quite proud to be entrusted with this project.”

Armstrong Elementary School Principal Val Edgell explains the funding for this project was generously provided through a federal government arts and heritage grant and from well known and much loved retired AES teacher, Helen Sidney. “There is quite a history surrounding this bell. Ringing the bell used to be quite an honour at Armstrong elementary. I’ve been told that students were carefully selected and honoured to ring the bell in recognition of a special achievement or demonstrating a special quality.”

“At some point the bell was no longer working properly. In anticipation of the 100 year anniversary of the Brick School plans started being made to replace the bell with a replica. Norvall Rental donated a scissor lift to enable employees to get a closer look at the original bell so they had a better idea of what to replace it with. We contacted a bell expert in the United states who found us a replica bell however they were unable to ship it to Canada so that didn’t help. We next contacted Brosamers Bells, an antique bell shop in the United States. The owner, Mark, took an interest in our endeavour to get a bell. Mark’s family had been collecting antique bells for generations. He remembered one particular bell from his dad’s collection. Only Mark knew that they still had this bell. It was hanging in the loft of an old barn.”

“It was a beautiful brass bell, not all polished up but a beautiful copper green bell and one that seemed to be the right size and shape for us. They rang it for us and Heather Ramsey (a student at AES when the bell was working and now a teacher at the school) declared it had the perfect ringtone and this was the bell we needed to get. The owner of the bell shop was hoping we could drive down to Michigan to get it but that was a long ways away so with the help of Patty Noonan from the Armstrong Chamber of Commerce away was found to ship it to us and get it through customs.”

“Once the bell arrived we had to figure out how to get it installed.”

“Our new bell is huge and it proved very difficult to install in the bell tower because over the years new duct work for heating had been installed in the attic. However, luckily for us the school district put Mel Cooper on the task and through lots of creative thinking Mel and his crew found a way to get this very heavy bell up into the bell tower and installed, where it will once again ring on special occasions.”

Edgell said they were thrilled that Sidney could come to the school and ring the new bell for its first public ringing. “Mrs. Sidney taught at the Brick School for 41 years and our school has been the recipient of her generosity in so many ways. There is no one better to ring the bell for the first time than Mrs. Sidney.”

(ADDED BY SD83 COMMUNICATIONS)