Jeff Bell doesn’t think he goes above and beyond to help those around him.
His friends would disagree.
A group of them decided to nominate Bell in the Favourite Foothills Citizen category in this year’s Western Wheel Readers’ Choice Awards, an initiative that took on a life of its own and resulted in the Calgary firefighter becoming the runaway winner.
Bell, who has lived in Okotoks’ Westmount neighbourhood for almost two decades, is quick to downplay the recognition, saying he initially thought his friends were playing a joke on him.
“It's something those guys kind of do, but now that I know it’s real, I think there's people that are a lot more deserving. I mean, I can name off a bunch of people,” he said.
Saying he’s “flattered and humbled” by the honour, Bell doesn’t believe it’s warranted.
“I do what I think anybody would do if they were called,” he said. “I've got a good group of friends and there's nothing I wouldn't do for them and vice versa.”
Jordan Vanderhelm said a group of friends were sitting around one day when they came up with the idea to nominate Bell in the Readers’ Choice because of all that he does to help family, friends and neighbours.
“Every time you talk to the guy, he's helping a neighbour or he's keeping a lookout for a neighbour,” Vanderhelm said. “He's doing this or he's doing that or he's building something for someone or he's loaning something to someone.
“This guy's been doing a lot of public service stuff for a couple decades now, so we were like we should throw his name in the hat and see where it goes. And I guess everyone told their friends and they must have told their friends and he ended up being at the top of the pile at the end of the day.”
“Honestly, it went further than I was anticipating."
Bell isn’t one to sit on a board or volunteer for a particular organization, but the neighbourhood handyman is your first call when a job needs doing.
“He's always looking out for his neighbours,” said Vanderhelm. “He's like, oh, there's that guy there across the street, I helped him move all his rock, or this guy over here, I helped him with this, and this guy over there, I helped him with that.
“This whole cul-de-sac, he's pointing out people and he's not saying look at me, I've helped him out, it’s just what he does. He's like everyone’s go-to guy if you need a hand or you need something. I think he must have accumulated a lot of favours because he's been doing this kind of thing for a lot of years.”
