Hannah Otto holding 'Thank you, Todd' sign, Nov. 10, 2025. PC: Fox 11 Online
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Craig and Julie Bell lost their son, Todd, to complications from muscular dystrophy in 2012.
That year, the family got Green Bay Packers season tickets and decided to use them to honor Todd’s memory.
“My son had Duchenne muscular dystrophy. He was in a wheelchair. We applied for season tickets, but he passed away before he got them. We knew Todd was going to succumb early in life. And I basically decided, you know, that wasn’t the time to cry about it,” said Craig, Todd’s father and co-founder of Wheel of Todd, a nonprofit that donates handicap tickets for Packers home games to children with disabilities.
That mindset turned into the Bells giving other families the experience of a lifetime at Lambeau Field.
“We didn’t want to just give them the tickets. We wanted them to have everything as free as possible. So, we give them a motel room for two nights. We give them $1,000 to spend anywhere they want. And we drive five hours to come here to put on a tailgate party and roll out the red carpet for them, like my friends did to our son,” said Craig.
Before the Bells got season tickets, Todd said he didn’t want to go to Packers games in the cold.
“He said, ‘Well, Dad, what would you do with the other tickets?’ I go, ‘Well, maybe I could sell them, or maybe I could donate them,'” Craig recalled. “[Todd said], ‘Oh my God, Dad, that would be so cool if you donated those tickets.'”
Since then, the Bells have donated tickets for 42 Packers games.
“The smiles that the kids get, and then the parents usually start crying, and it’s like we’re instantly bonded,” said Bell.
Hannah Otto has muscular dystrophy.
“Me and my mom had a very rough year. I had a lot going on along with graduating, and my mom’s been really sick and in and out of the hospitals. So, I basically wrote in how I wanted this to be like a big experience, where I can make a bunch of memories with my mom,” said Otto.
“I was driving home from a doctor’s appointment, and she called me and she was crying so hard I could barely understand her. She’s like, ‘I won tickets to a Packers game, Mom!’ She was so excited,” said Shannon Larrabee, Hannah’s mother.
In exchange for the donated tickets, Craig and Julie ask for one simple thing in return.
“Just a picture of them holding a sign that says, ‘Thank you, Todd.’ That’s all we want,” said Craig.
For those given the experience of a lifetime, they’re more than happy to say thank you to Todd.
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