NSPIRE
SWIFT SERVICE WRITTEN BY ROBERT COCUZZO
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KIT NOBLE
DESPITE A HEARTBREAKING LOSS IN THE STANLEY CUP FINALS, THERE’S STILL A POSITIVE STORY COMING OUT OF THE BRUINS LOCKER ROOM THANKS TO A LOCAL CRAFTSMAN.
For most professional hockey players who met former Bruins great Cam Neely “around the glass,” it usually meant being on the receiving end of a body-crushing check. But for Nantucket resident Stephen Swift, his relationship with Neely and a pane of glass has been far less painful. For the last sixteen years, Swift has been Neely’s “glass guy,” commissioned to do ornate glass carvings for the Boston Bruins as well as for Neely’s nonprofit, The Neely Foundation for Cancer Care. A lifelong Bruins fan, Swift guides us around the Bruins
strain borne by patients and their families during treat-
locker room where names like Thorton, Seguin, Lucic and
ment. Particularly, he recognized that many patients were
Chara are printed on placards below a massive piece of
commuting from afar and needed a place to stay. The re-
glass he hand carved. This is the inner sanctum of Bos-
sult was the Neely House, a bed and breakfast style living
ton’s beloved team and Swift proudly points out his vari-
quarters located within Tufts Medical Center.
ous glass pieces hung in the Bruins’ den. “That’s called the third logo,” he says, nodding to a bear carved into the
What began as eight apartments in 1997 is today eighteen
glass. “Cam had me do it last year.”
apartments with two kitchens and two living rooms. In addition to free lodgings, the Neely House offers a sup-
Beyond his passion for the Bruins, it’s the Neely Founda-
port system, a community of patients and families fighting
tion that really gets Swift charged up. He takes us to where
the same battle. As one patient put it, “The Neely House
it all started sixteen years ago, a wing of the Tufts Medi-
is critical to my treatment.” Over the last sixteen years,
cal Center called the Neely House. In the vestibule, three
the Neely House has grown into a foundation, raising mil-
slabs of glass stand upright, each hand-etched by Swift.
lions of dollars for cancer treatment and research and now
Some years ago, Cam Neely lost his mother and father
boasting four wings in Tufts Medical Center. And Steve
to cancer, and the hockey player witnessed firsthand the
Swift has been there every step of the way.