“Personal Stories” highlight members of the community in areas where EM is partnering to develop communities in positive directions and empowering leaders to take ahold of their visions for those communities. They are stories of people doing their part to bring the love of Christ to where they live. ~ Experience Mission
If you mention the name “T. Bell” to people in McDowell County, chances are they know who you’re talking about, even if they don’t know him personally. T. Bell, short for Thomas Bell, enjoys keeping busy. And that is an understatement. He manages a pizza restaurant, drives a school bus for county schools, trains people to earn their drivers license, coaches football, tennis and basketball, umpires at baseball games, and helps connect Experience Mission and other organizations with families and individuals in need in McDowell County. Did I mention he is also married with three children and six grandchildren?
T. Bell’s Bluetooth headset is almost always in his ear, and he greets everyone with his deep voice and warm smile. While a longtime fixture in the county, he doesn’t look it, with only a few gray hairs on his goatee. He grew up in McDowell county, along with five brothers and four sisters. T. Bell and his two younger brothers sang as the Bell Boys at their grandfather’s church, the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ, where he still attends services today. A 1976 Welch High School graduate, T. Bell was the only four-sport letterman, running hurdles in track and playing basketball, football, and tennis. He wanted to play baseball as well, he says, but didn’t have time.
After graduating, he took a year off school before attending West Virginia University. He always wanted to be a comedian and entered school as an art major. Once he got settled, he became a business management major, but his graduation dreams were cut short after a year and a half when he ran out of money for tuition. Even though his dad offered to put up the house to pay for his schooling, T. Bell had seen his family struggle too much financially to ask him to do that.
Instead, T. Bell joined the Army National Guard and served for eight years. During and after his service he returned to McDowell County to work a variety of jobs, including work as a police officer, a school custodian, and a chef at Pizza Hut. A hard worker, he rose from custodian to bus driver and chef to manager, jobs he has held now for 24 and 30 years respectively.
When T. Bell initially returned to McDowell County after college and serving in the National Guard, his house was in bad shape. Thankfully, a group with the Appalachian Service Project came to help him fix it up, and after that, he began helping McDowell Mission find people to work with in the area. A few years ago, he began also helping Experience Mission do the same. He feels it is the least he can do with all God has blessed him with.
At his core, T. Bell has a heart to serve. Between working as a bus driver and coaching a variety of school sports over the years, he has tried to be a mentor in any way he can. Not just teaching young athletes how to play sports, but also coaching them in life as well.
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