Bell was donated by Jake McMichael and mounted to a stand by Wayne Lowrie
It’s a Rotary tradition — every club meeting and function begins and ends with the ringing of the meeting bell. But for the Rotary Club of Wilsonville, that became a problem when the club’s tabletop bell broke — several times.
The bell became detached from its handle sometime prior to the pandemic, and when meetings resumed in July 2021, Rotarian Bob Harland fixed it with Gorilla Glue. That held until the club’s big annual event in April 2022 — the Heart of Gold Dinner and Auction. Then-president Curt Kipp held the bell up to strike it with the gavel, only to have the bell detach from the handle and hit the floor.
Kipp and Harland determined that the bell could be glued back again, but it would probably just fall apart again sooner or later. The consensus was reached that it was time to just get a new one. Clubs normally order their new bells off the web from a national club supply company, and the club board discussed doing just that. Board members stepped up right away to fund the expenditure with donations.
But a funny thing happened on the way to placing that order. Longtime Rotarian Jake McMichael volunteered that he had a bell to donate from his house.
“I bought it from a departing neighbor, kind of a garage sale item, for a small amount,” he said. “For 22 years, it was mounted on my back deck in front of Charbonneau Golf Club’s #2 hole on the yellow course. I would ring the bell whenever we noticed a good shot or a great putt. That got the players’ attention and they would go happily on their way.”
The club quickly accepted this donation. “A bell with a personal connection to the club was clearly much better than something store bought,” Kipp said.
Rather than ringing with a gavel or hammer, the bell has a rope underneath, attached to the clapper. It makes a clear and loud sound. There was just one problem. Most club meeting bells are freestanding. This one was not. It had side mount hardware one could use to mount it to a post or building. If you placed it on a table or podium, it would just tip over.
The club enlisted noted woodworker Wayne Lowrie, a charter member of the club ever since it was founded in 1975, to devise a solution. Lowrie came up with a sturdy post with a base and wheels and mounted the bell to it. Unlike the old bell, this one is not coming apart anytime soon.
There was one thing left to do. Rotary meeting bells typically have an inscription. This one did not, so a small plaque was mounted to it, which reads: “Rotary Club of Wilsonville, Chartered May 14, 1975, New bell dedicated June 30, 2022, Thanks to Jake McMichael and Wayne Lowrie.”
As the inscription notes, the bell was dedicated June 30 at the club installation banquet with Lowrie and McMichael present. The quick ceremony was a surprise and a delight to them.
“It was neat we were able to create our own meeting bell and connect it to the club’s history in this way,” Kipp said. “Jake has been in the club for going on a quarter century, and Wayne has been with us since the beginning. Now, the bell they created will be with us long into the future, and it will mark the open and close of every meeting. And the club members who pledged to donate for a new bell ordered off the web got to keep their money.”
The club meets in a hybrid format, with members able to attend in person, or virtually via Zoom. Meetings take place Thursdays at noon, currently in the community meeting room at Grace Chapel in Wilsonville.