Every night at 7, a church bell starts ringing in Norwich.
The peal from the Norwich Congregational Church continues for five minutes before going silent once again.
In Italy, footage of people singing from their balconies during a government-mandated lockdown has gone viral. In New York City, there are cheers from high rises for health care workers changing shifts on what used to be bustling streets.
And beginning April 3, the usually silent, 200-year-old Paul Revere bell on Church Street started ringing each evening to honor health care workers and first responders in Norwich during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was just an idea that I had. I saw that some of the other towns and cities were doing it,” said Dan Fraser, owner of Dan & Whit’s. “I thought, ‘We have a church in town with a bell. We can do this.’ ”
After putting out a request on the Norwich Listserv for volunteers, a team was assembled and each family was assigned a night of the week. Former Selectboard member Christopher Ashley gave them a brief training session — with volunteers adhering to social distancing guidelines and wearing protective gear — on how to manually ring the bell.
“The trick is, there’s two pieces to it. You have to ring it slow and steady,” said Ashley, a retired elementary school principal. “You grab the rope as high as you can, and pull it as low as you can go.”
Ann Marie Smith, along with her husband and their two adult children, rings the bell on Friday nights. Between the four of them, Smith estimates, they ring the bell around 100 times.
“There’s a little learning curve as far as the cadence of it. There’s a certain rhythm that you need to get used to and a pause in the pulling,” Smith said. “For us it’s meaningful. Many of our friends and neighbors are doctors and nurses and we have a full understanding of the sacrifice that they’re making, and it’s very important to us to support them in any way we can.”
The Smiths live downtown and can hear the bell every night of the week.
“We appreciate hearing it. Our neighbors right next door are both physicians, and they appreciate it,” Smith said. “It’s meaningful to them. It’s just a little light in the day. They hear it. They appreciate it. They listen for it.”
Norwich Fire Chief Stephen Leinoff said he values the gesture.
“We appreciate it. I know that some of us really consider what’s going on just part of our jobs. At the same time these are challenging times and it’s nice to know we have a community that’s behind us and supports us in our mission,” Leinoff said. “I think we feel a lot of support from the town and we’re encouraged by that.”
Cinny Bensen rings the bell Thursdays with her son, Peter. He’s home from Boston right now, where he does clinical research at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
“The idea of doing something in our very small community that resonates across the globe, to think that you’re doing something that other people are doing in far-flung places, really pulls the community together,” Bensen said. “To have these little windows of opportunity when we can just quietly be together to do something that feels important is really a gift.”
Parades of emergency response vehicles honor first responders and health care workers, like the one outside Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center last weekend with representation from 21 Upper Valley communities, according to a news release from Dartmouth-Hitchcock. Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health has launched a website, D-HH Heroes, where members of the public can send thank-you messages to the health system’s workers. There are white ribbons appearing outside homes and businesses, including Dan & Whit’s, in the Upper Valley to honor them, too.
In Lyme, they shout into the void. Or at least Hanover High School teacher Bill Murphy has done so each night for the last three weeks.
“I just happened to wake up one morning, and said, ‘I’m not going to take it anymore,’ ” Murphy said. “I just make a loud noise myself. I don’t know what to call it … my daughter, she makes fun and says I’m calling in the pigs. You can call it a howl. You can call it a scream. But it’s loud.”
After he posted on the Lyme Listserv, Murphy has heard from other Lyme residents that they are participating — but not so directly. He said he doesn’t hear them as he lives on a hilltop.
“There are cowbells and sleigh bells and pots and pans. Somebody is playing a tuba. There’s a hunting horn. Someone got an old fire siren that they set off,” Murphy said. “At least in the beginning they had fun. I hope they’re still doing it.”
While Murphy said he understands that shouting at the virus will not stop its spread, it’s a way to release some of the frustrations brought on by social distancing and stay-at-home orders.
“I think that what happens is you have an enemy that you can’t see, so … you spend all your time indoors and this invisible enemy keeps moving in,” Murphy said, adding that there’s no real way to fight back. “I can go out in my driveway and make a noise.”
In Norwich, the bell will keep ringing every night at 7 until the pandemic has passed.
“People want to participate and be a part of things,” Fraser said. “They’re playing a role in moving this forward without focusing the negativity of it all.”
Liz Sauchelli can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com or 603-727-3221.
