What rings your bell about the tower?

Staff report
Maybe it was the night they dropped Super Balls off the top.

Or maybe it was where your significant other popped the question.

Maybe you just like hearing the Beatles’ greatest hits as interpreted by bells. (“Lady Madonna,” frankly, has never sounded better.)

Or maybe it’s a welcome reminder of home as it emerges into view from the highway.

Over the course of 50 years, the Mahanay Memorial Carillon Tower has rung its way into our collective moments and memories.

To mark the Bell Tower’s 50th anniversary in October, Iowa sculptor and poet David Williamson has been tapped to create an original poem — and he wants to build it using those memories we all have of the tower.

What emerges will be a collaborative community poem inspired by the local landmark.

This weekend marks the start of the process with the debut of Mahanay Tower Moments & Memories boxes.

Beginning Saturday, boxes will be found at Homestead Coffee and Bakery, the Jefferson Public Library and on the observation deck of the tower itself.

They’ll be in place throughout the summer.

Using a grid found next to each box, participants will get up to 168 squares — the same number as the tower’s height in feet — to spell out their favorite Bell Tower moment or memory.

Williamson will then take all those pieces of paper and construct a single poem.

Coincidentally, Williamson is a member of Jefferson Community High School’s Class of 1966 — the same year the tower opened.