The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
YNHH counselor gets free trip to Super Bowl
NEW HAVEN — Ray Bell has been gifted the chance to live one of his dreams.
Bell, a 25-year employee of Yale New Haven Hospital, was invited by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft to board the team’s private aircraft Saturday for an all-expenses-paid trip to Super Bowl LV in Tampa, Fla.
“I wanted to do that one day. It’s so unbelievable,” Bell said.
Bell is one of 76 New England-area health care workers invited by the Patriots for the trip.
In a statement to ESPN, Kraft said the invitation is “giving them a welldeserved break for a day and an opportunity to enjoy the Super Bowl, a reality that is only made possible because of the vaccines.”
The Patriots are not playing in the Feb. 7 game , which will feature the Kansas City Chiefs against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Bell began his career in the Yale New Haven Health system as a patient care associate after eight years in the Army’s combat engineer unit.
“I’ve always believed that in order to help yourself you have to help somebody else. It was like that before I was doing health care: if I can help you and talk to you, it helped me,” he said.
“It was a dream of mine to be in the health care field and I got the courage to do it 25 years ago.” Bell said.
Since he recently earned a degree at the University of Connecticut, Bell began working as a milieu counselor in Yale New Haven Psychiatric Hospital. Most of his work is assisting people between the ages of 18 and 28 with mental health concerns. He said the last year during the pandemic has been an especially stressful, but rewarding, one.
“You see a lot of people come in with so many different mental health issues. It’s been kind of tough, but I try to come to work the same way I came to work for the last 25 years: I try to keep consistencies throughout the whole time and treat people with respect and try to help them through,” he said. “I like to do the small things that help people make it through the tough times.”
Rebecca Stanley, director of nursing for psychiatry and behavioral health at Yale New Haven Hospital and Bell’s manager, nominated Bell for the opportunity.
“Ray was one of the people who stood out as a loyal, longstanding employee in a couple of different areas of our hospital. A man of service, a man I know to have a quiet presence and a quick wit, but not in any kind of showy way,” she said. “He’s one of these people who when you announce this blessing, using his words, everyone responds with, ‘That is someone who deserves it.’”
Bell said many of his colleagues appear to be
happy for him — something that in turn makes him happy.
“That makes me feel good that they’re happy,” he said.
Bell, a native of North Carolina who has lived in Connecticut for 35 years, is a lifelong football fan and has a son who played football at Georgia Tech. He said he’s hoping for a good game between two exciting quarterbacks that goes “down to the wire.”
Having grown up in North Carolina before the Carolina Panthers were established in 1995, Bell said he grew up rooting for Washington D.C.’s team. Since moving to Connecticut, he said he has “come to like the Patriots,”
and his son is “a diehard Pats fan.”
“I’ve always liked the Patriots and Tom Brady,” he said.
Although Brady is no longer with the Patriots, Bell now has the chance to take the team’s plane to watch Brady play in the Super Bowl.
“It’s going to be like heaven I guess,” he joked. “It’s going to be special and a very special moment I can tell my grandkids, and they can say their grandpa flew in a private jet owned by the Patriots,” he said. “I’m very thankful and I appreciate everything everyone is doing for me.”