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Bells Ring for Frederick County
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Members of Alpha4 are shown. Alpha4 is an independent four-in-hand handbell ensemble directed by Pam Ion.
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Norman Gibat portrays a nineteenth century camp "cookie" at historic Harriet Chapel, ca 1833, located in the community of Catoctin Furnace.
Visitors sampled vegetable stew, sourdough bread and cheese as it would have been prepared for the iron workers of the furnace.
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The sounds of hundreds of bells being clunked and tinkled by over 100 handbell ringers were simply described as "beautiful" by several people in
attendance. Ringers participated in the Bell and History Days Handbell Festival Finale on Sunday, April 6 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in
Emmitsburg.
Eight local handbell ensembles played en masse and with solo selections for the festival. The mass selections were directed by Joche Wilmot, Director
of Music for Calvary United Methodist Church in Frederick and John A. Widmann, Director of Music and Organist at the Frederick Presbyterian Church.
Handbell choirs from the following churches participated: The All Saints' Episcopal Church's All Saints Ringers, Calvary United Methodist Church's
Joyful Noise Handbell Choir, Evangelical Reformed United Church of Christ's Coventry Handbell Choir, Frederick Presbyterian Church's Handbell Choir, First Baptist Church of
Frederick's King's Ringers, Walkersville's Glade United Church of Christ's Glade Tower Handbell Choir, and the Middletown Evangelical Lutheran Church - Zion's Adult Handbell Choir.
The size of the groups varied but included several large choirs playing four or five octaves of handbells and up to three octaves of handchimes.
Alpha4, a small, independent four-in-hand ensemble, also performed. This group demonstrated the interlocking handbell technique that allows each member to play with two to three
bells in each hand, meaning that each person is holding and ringing anywhere from four to six bells at any given time.
This unique event opened with a county-wide bell ringing at 10 a.m. on Saturday, April 5. The premise behind the Bell and History weekend events was
that participants collect stamps at various participating museum and park locations. Various sites throughout the county held activities for the event.
In Northern Frederick County, two trolley's drove participants to featured event locations. The Trolleys stopped at designated points like Mount
Saint Mary's College, Harriet Chapel, the Catoctin Furnace community, the National Shrine Grotto of Lourdes, the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Park, the National Shrine of
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the Emmitsburg Branch Library and the Frederick County Fire and Rescue Museum. Event goers could also visit the Olive Green Cabin at Cunningham Falls State
Park and Catoctin Mountain Park.
This elaborate weekend event was planned by the Frederick Historic Sites Consortium to open the 2008 museum season. This season continues through
mid-December and concludes with the annual Museums by Candlelight tour on December 13.
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