Correspondent photo / Sean Barron John Roland, a 2024 Springfield Local High School graduate and Boy Scout, rings a brass bell he restored and refurbished for his Eagle Scout project. Roland was honored during a ceremony Monday at Springfield Elementary School, where the bell rests.

NEW MIDDLETOWN — The famous 1940 Ernest Hemingway novel “For Whom the Bell Tolls” tells the story of Robert Jordan, a young American volunteer during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s, though a bell much closer in time and location tells part of the story of another American volunteer.

“I was a little skeptical at first, but once I saw the bell, I committed myself to it,” Roland, a 2024 Springfield Local High School graduate, said. “It was unrecognizable from when we got it. I was thinking of what it could be and how it could look better.”

Roland, who’s also part of New Springfield-based Boy Scout Troop 119, was referring to having volunteered to refurbish and restore a 50-year-old brass bell for his Eagle Scout project.

For his nearly one-year effort, Roland was honored during a ceremony Monday morning at Springfield Elementary School on Youngstown-Pittsburgh Road, in front of which the bell sits.

Since 1974, the 250-pound, solid brass bell had been housed at the former elementary school on Main Street, which was built in 1924. That school was razed about nine years ago, and in 2015, the current building opened, Principal Anthony Albanese said.

When Roland volunteered for the project, the bell was “in a highly corroded state,” so it needed to be sandblasted and painted, he said. Early on, a bricklayer was hired to help dig a 40-inch hole through the concrete, into which 26 50-pound bags of cement were poured and bricks added.

In addition, Roland credited former schools Superintendent Thomas Yazvac for proposing the idea.

The project, which he finished in December and cost nearly $2,100, also entailed in part installing new grease and grease fittings, working with an engineer to create a 3D scale presentation, reusing the existing steel frame to support the bell and connecting stainless steel hardware with the yoke and bell. Also included was refurbishing a clapper hanger before the bell was mounted in a brick structure in front of the school.

Roland also thanked several community organizations for their support.

Among those who provided assistance was Floyd Crooks, a sales representative with EJ, a South Euclid-based construction material wholesale business.

“We saw the bell and said, ‘What can we do?'” Crooks said, adding that the original idea was to use it as a victory bell on the football field.

With his history in the construction industry, Crooks helped Roland with the brick-and-mortar aspects, then slightly tweaked the original design, he noted.

“A lot of safety stuff was involved with it, too,” Crooks, who’s also a former Boy Scout, said.

The bell also may be used for special school occasions, such as allowing Student of the Week winners to ring it at the start of each school day, Albanese said.

In addition, the school started a Kindness Club last year for its third- and fourth-graders, so the bell and surrounding brick structure could provide an ideal place for those students to meet with one another and learn about Springfield Elementary School’s history, along with its past students and programs, he added.

“It brings all of the history and all of the people who went through (the old elementary school) back into where it is now. It brings history back to our new school,” the principal said, adding, “It looks like it belongs here. It’s now found its permanent home.”

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