To the Editor:
The cover of your September 20th Wanderer featured a mural at ORR painted by Amber Jones in honor of her childhood friend, Beckett Kiernan, who tragically died after completing basic training. Ms. Jones’s mural is significant not only for Mr. Kiernan, but also for every veteran who answered the call of duty and gave the ultimate sacrifice for our country. The reference of Flanders Field and the poem, In Flander’s Fields by John McCrae, brings to mind that this year’s Veteran’s Day, November 11th, is the 100th anniversary of the World War I armistice.
Last year Mary O’Keefe, a Mattapoisett resident, spearheaded an effort, Bells of Remembrance, to bring back the custom of tolling the bells on November 11 and her project was adopted by the Mattapoisett Woman’s Club. Local churches and municipalities from Mattapoisett, Wareham, Fairhaven, and Marion were contacted and participated in the tolling of bells. Now in the second year, many other churches and municipalities have been called throughout the Southcoast as well as Boston and the Cape and are joining the tradition not only this year, but also in future years.
The United States World War One Centennial Commission has a participation app for Smartphones that may be downloaded to our individual phones by going to the computer website YourACE or ww1cc.org/bells and following the directions. The app has a built-in countdown timer that will sound at 11:00 am on November 11, if you’ve chosen to participate.
Let’s all honor our Veterans and our men and women who are serving now with the Commission’s app and ring our bells. I hope you will join in: I have.
Sincerely,
Karen Gardner, Mattapoisett Woman’s Club
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