A group of local townspeople are involved in The Hazen Bell Community Project, an effort to recondition and install a bell at the local Hazen Union School in memory of a student, Finn Rooney. This effort has been launched to realize the dream of many in the community who fondly remember the bell at Hardwick Academy, the school which preceded Hazen Union. Hazen Union School has been the High School for Greensboro and other area students since 1970. Before his tragic death, Finn had proposed restoring a working bell to the greater Hardwick Community whose purpose would be to inform, to celebrate, to unify, and to heal, just as the beloved bell once did so many years ago.
The bell has been gifted to the project by the Town of Greensboro after it was found in the basement of the Town Hall, the former Greensboro High School which closed in 1968. The bell is being restored by volunteers in Craftsbury; a local architect has drawn up plans for a bell tower to be placed near the Hazen gym; lumber is being donated by a local mill. Many individuals throughout Hardwick, Craftsbury and Greensboro have been involved in the project, and plans are in place to have the bell tower built and the bell installed this Spring in time for the bell to ring in celebration at Graduation on June 11.
For further information and for ways to help, here are some links. Thanks to Kim Greaves, Greensboro Town Clerk, for making us aware of this heartwarming and worthwhile project.
The Restored Bell Rings again
The Hazen Bell GoFundMe effort, set up by Sara Tewksbury, a Hardwick Kiwanis Club member.
The WCAX New Report covering the story of Finn Rooney and the effort to bring the bell back
PBS Rubble Strip program entitled “Finn and the Bell”.
For additional information contact Mike Clark at [email protected] and 802-595-3419 or Dave Perrigo (Former Principal of Hazen Union) at [email protected] and 802-525-3414
