The Kind Works Bell: How a Small Token Keeps Kindness Moving Through Danbury
Danbury and Candlewood Lake · Community Photo
In the Danbury and Candlewood Lake area, a small ceramic bell occasionally turns up in unexpected places — on a park bench, tucked into a community bulletin board, left at a coffee shop or library. It is not lost. It is placed there intentionally, part of a kindness program that has quietly been building community connections across the region for years. If you have ever found one, you have encountered Kind Works.
The Story Behind the Bell
Kind Works is a nonprofit based in Bethel, CT, built on the legacy of Ben's Bells — a national kindness movement that uses handmade ceramic bells as physical tokens of intentional kindness.
The Kind Works bell program carries that tradition forward with a local identity: bells are hand-crafted in the Kind Works studio by volunteers and community members, then released into the community for strangers to find. When someone finds a bell, they are encouraged to keep it, share it, or pass it along — and to visit the Kind Works website to learn more about the organization and its mission.
Why a Bell?
The power of the bell program is not in the object itself but in what it asks of the person who finds it. It creates a moment of unexpected connection — a tangible sign that someone, somewhere, was thinking about kindness in a deliberate way and took time to make something and leave it for a stranger.
In a community context, these moments accumulate. They shift the ambient experience of a neighborhood, a school, or a workplace. They remind people that intentional kindness is a practice, not just an instinct. Kind Works has built an entire organization around that insight, and the bell is its most visible symbol.
The Studio Where Bells Are Made
The Kind Works studio in Bethel is a public-facing creative space where community members can come to make bells alongside volunteers and staff. The studio is open to individuals, families, school groups, and corporate teams — and it functions as much as a community gathering space as a production facility.
Making a bell is a hands-on, tactile experience that is accessible to all ages and skill levels, which is exactly the point. Kindness is not a specialized skill. The studio demonstrates that through the act of making something with your hands and giving it away.
Get Involved
Kind Works welcomes volunteers in the studio during open volunteer hours, and the bell program is always looking for people who want to help make, place, and spread bells throughout the greater Danbury community. The organization also accepts studio sponsorships that help keep the space open and programs running — a meaningful way for local businesses to invest in community wellbeing in a visible, tangible way.
To learn more, find a bell, or get involved with Kind Works, visit kind-works.org or stop by the studio.
Address: 32 Stony Hill Road, Suite E, Bethel, CT 06801
Phone: (203) 616-5591
Website: kind-works.org
Source: kind-works.org
Header Image Source: kind-works.org
