McAvoys dedicate bell at St. Benedict’s

By Deborah Rafford
Special to the Pioneer Times
    BENEDICTA — While Millinocket-area Knights of Columbus stood at attention, Bill McAvoy explained how the bell from atop the old St. Joseph’s Church in Sherman Station made its way to Benedicta to be placed on the lawn between St. Benedict’s Church and the cemetery in time for last weekend’s 175th town birthday festivities.
    McAvoy said his parents, Isabelle and John “Buck” McAvoy were married in St. Joe’s in 1947, and their whole family attended and had first communion there. When the church closed several year ago, McAvoy said his father vowed to bring the bell to St. Benedict’s someday. The elder McAvoy got the bell and stored it in his garage while the family decided where to put it. Following Buck’s passing last April, his survivors decided to dedicate the bell in the his memory, behind St. Benedict’s Church.
    “With an eighth grade education, our father helped raise and care for nine kids,” said Bill McAvoy. “His idea of a vacation was to go to church on Sunday, then it was right back into the woods on Monday. He was known for building roads.”
    Bill McAvoy said his brother Scott took the bell apart, and “what should have been a two-hour job at the most turned into a four-day affair. Everyone had ideas as to how to put it together, but several tries resulted in no sound from the bell. Finally, after looking ‘real hard’ at the photo that they had taken while it was still intact, the right pieces were finally put into the right places, and the bell made a resounding gong.”
    After the dedication ceremony which was attended by over 100 folks following last Sunday’s Mass, the bell gave off its first official ‘gong’ in its new home, not far from where ‘Buck’ is buried.
    Aroostook Monuments in Presque Isle set the platform for the bell, and a stone with a D-7 tractor with grass along the bottom and a mountain in the background will be added as soon as the ground around the bell dries up.
BELL DEDICATION — The McAvoy family recently dedicated a bell that had originally come from St. Joseph’s Church in Sherman Station to St. Benedict’s Church in memory of their loved one, John “Buck” McAvoy, who passed away in April. Taking part in the Sunday dedication were the McAvoy children — Chris, Shawn, Billy, Scott, Lisa McAvoy Rush, Becky McAvoy Hughes and Michelle McAvoy Robinson — and Buck’s widow, Isabelle. Missing from the photo was Debbie McAvoy Patterson of Texas, and Ricky McAvoy of Patten, who had to be out of town.