ROCKINGHAM – Every seat was full in Rockingham Church as dozens of people attended the 16th annual restoration celebration on August 7.
The annual event is organized by the Friends of Rockingham Church, consisting of a group of dedicated volunteers led by President Glenn Allen.
Allen welcomed everyone to the celebration and invited Paul Jorgensen to ring the bell to begin the festivities. Jorgensen, who first attended the celebration and had a chance to ring the bell last year, decided this year to install a new rope for the bell.
“I am not a historian at all but when I grabbed that clothesline to ring the bell, I was thinking that probably wasn’t the original,” he said as the congregation chuckled.
He found himself a piece of rope and decided to tie three Matthew Walker knots to help with gripping the rope. Jorgensen provided some history on the knots used, explaining Matthew Walker knots are the only ones to be named after an actual person.
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