Its mission is to “inspire, educate, and motivate people to realize the impact of intentional kindness, and to empower individuals to act according to that awareness, thereby strengthening ourselves, our relationships, and our communities”.
[1] Ben's Bells was founded in 2003 by Jeannette Maré after the death of her three-year-old son and has grown to become a worldwide coping mechanism for the expression of love and support.
She found comfort in the kind acts of strangers and in spending time with friends and family in her backyard studio shaping clay into what are now recognizable bells seen all over Tucson.
On the one-year anniversary of her son's death, Maré and friends distributed hundreds of bells around the Tucson community for people to find with notes saying to take one and pass on the kindness.
[2] There are now three studios where individuals can help create the ceramic wind chimes that are randomly distributed throughout the community for people to take and continue to spread the kindness to others.
This was first seen in the organization's hometown in January 2011 after a supermarket shooting that left six dead and twelve injured, including United States Representative Gabby Giffords.
[8] The “Be Kind Challenge”, part of the Ben's Bells education program, has quickly blossomed from its Tucson origins to various other areas of the country where tragedy has struck, including Newtown after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
The program teaches five fundamental educational aspects: self-awareness, social awareness, responsible decision making, self-management, and relationship management.