It’s not every day that one receives an invitation to a private tour of the White House. It’s even rarer for one to find occasion to send the dulcet tones of a bronze bell echoing down the corridors of that illustrious home. Yet bell ringers are an indefatigable bunch and, following the 2025 National Bell Festival, ringing was indeed heard at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Having commissioned the Solidarity Bell as a symbol of the steadfast American commitment to defending Ukrainian sovereignty, the National Bell Festival put pen to paper. Writing to our friends at the White House, we offered the bullet-shells-turned-bell as a gift in recognition of the Biden Administration’s unwavering support of the Ukrainian people. To our delight, the gift was accepted.
We found the process of navigating the bell’s cumbersome crate and cherrywood stand through Secret Service clearance delightfully illuminating; we don’t often have cause to pass a bronze bell through an X-ray machine, and the resultant images gave us all a good chuckle.
We were then welcomed into the Diplomatic Reception Room, where foreign ambassadors present their credentials and where President Franklin Roosevelt once conducted his fireside chats. Under the gaze of Gilbert Stuart’s commanding portrait of George Washington over the mantel, we prepared the bell.
In short order, our merry company of bell ringers and bell champions was joined by Carlos Elizondo, White House Social Secretary since 2021, who formally received the bell on behalf of the Administration. A man whose hands have welcomed kings and prime ministers took up the rope and resolutely sounded the Solidarity Bell.
Image: Carlos Elizondo, White House Social Secretary (right), shakes hands with Paul Ashe, Director of the National Bell Festival, in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House on Jan. 8, 2025.
Where does the bell go next? For now, it enters into the National Archives as a record of President Biden’s time in office. It is our hope, when his presidential library opens many years from now, the bell will find its place among the artifacts and collections – enjoining all who hear it to stand up for freedom, truth, and democracy.
Cover image: From left, Director of the National Bell Festival Paul Ashe, Board Member Camden Miller, and U.S. Semiquincentennial Bell Committeewoman Maureen Macfadden stand alongside the Solidarity Bell in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House on Jan. 8, 2025.
