This story has been amended to reflect the correct spelling of the Ben's Bells founder's last name, which is Maré, not Maté.

Wednesday, July 29, will be the final workshop at the 17 Church Hill Road Ben’s Bells Newtown Studio. The doors will not be closing permanently, however, on the program that has issued thousands of the handcrafted ceramic bead and bell ornaments to the Newtown community, and many other communities in need of an act of kindness.

Thursday and Friday, July 30 and 31, will be moving days for the studio, Tricia Guiry, the local studio’s community relations manager, said this week. Ben’s Bells will be relocating to 32 Stony Hill Road in Bethel, within the Kreuger Complex, where the studio hopes to reopen by mid-August.

Tucson, Ariz.-based Ben’s Bells is the kindness project of Jeannette Maré, begun more than a decade ago as a way for her to return the many kindnesses bestowed on her as she grieved the loss of her 3-year-old son, Ben, who died of croup virus.

The bells are hung inconspicuously about a community in need of kindness, but not solely communities that have suffered great tragedies. They are meant to be discovered and brought home, or passed on, to bring a bit of brightness to a dark place. Ben’s Bells Newtown, one of only four studios in the United States (two are in Tucson, and another in Phoenix, Ariz.), began hosting workshops in February 2013, following the December 14, 2012, shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, and opened the Church Hill Road studio in July 2013.

The Ben’s Bells Kind Campus program was already a part of the Middle Gate School community, prior to 12/14, and since 2013 has expanded its reach into other schools of this community and beyond, encompassing more than 60 Connecticut schools this year. The studio workshops have attracted numerous individuals and groups to help make the ceramic beads that make up Ben’s Bells ornaments.

While the move may seem sudden, the search for a new space has actually been underway “since before I began,” said Ms Guiry, who has been in her position at Ben’s Bells since late 2014. There was much skyping between herself and Ms Maré as the search was underway, she said.

“We didn’t want to leave Newtown, but we did an exhaustive search [to find the right space],” she said. Sites at Pecks Lane and at Fairfield Hills were among those considered in Newtown, Ms Guiry said.

The group is very appreciative of the current landlord, stressed Ms Guiry and Ms Maré, who was in town the week of July 20 to sign the lease on the new space. The Church Hill Road location could not house a kiln, though, and larger accommodations than the 700-square-foot Church Hill Road studio offered were a necessity.

Suitable space and cost were both factors in the final decision to move the studio just over the Newtown line into Bethel, they said.

“The Bethel landlord has given us an incredible break out of the generosity of their hearts,” Ms Maté said, “and because of their belief in our mission.”

The Bethel studio will offer 2,000 square feet of usable space, Ms Guiry said, allowing Ben’s Bells to focus more on group experiences. Groups of 50 or more can be accommodated in the new Ben’s Bells studio. The move will also allow the studio to establish more hours and days that it is open.

“[The new facility] has windows all around, two bathrooms, is completely handicap accessible, and has a utility area we need,” said Ms Maré. The new space also has a separate kiln room for firing the ceramic pieces on site. Because Stony Hill Road (Route 6) is high traffic, they hope more people will become aware of Ben’s Bells, and plenty of parking is available.

“We have loved being in Newtown,” Ms Maré said, “but Ben’s Bells is for everywhere and everyone. It actually doesn’t matter where it is. It just must be accessible, and [the new space] is.”

The move may even make the studio more accessible to other communities in the area, she added, and people from all over the area have worked to make the Kindness programs successful.

“Kindness is for all of us. There absolutely was a need [for acts of kindness] in this community, and there still is, but things are happening all over the world. Our message is for everybody, so we try not to be attached to boundaries,” she said. “We’re in this together. It doesn’t matter where we are, or who we are.”

Inquiries should be directed to the new Ben’s Bells e-mail, CT@BensBells.org. Information on the opening date at the new studio will be posted at the Ben’s Bells website (www.bensbells.org), and in The Newtown Bee.