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Surprise reunion for Lake Park dean after motorcycle accident

Lake Park High School East Dean of Students Pete Kolzow recently got a surprise visit from a stranger he helped in a motorcycle accident 4½ years ago.

In June 2010, Kolzow was at the Dairy Queen in Wasco with his then 3-year-old daughter and young niece and nephew when he heard a loud crash. The motorcycle driven by Chris Paul had been T-boned by an 18-year-old car driver, and Paul was laying on the ground with a mangled leg.

Kolzow told the kids, "Wait here and don't move!" and ran to Paul's side.

"He was terrified and in pain. You could see his leg was in bad shape. I said, 'Bud, you need to stay down. You're hurt,' and I told the people around us to call an ambulance. I helped him off with his helmet," Kolzow recalls. "I was just trying to keep him calm at the accident scene."

As soon as help arrived, Kolzow left, needing to return to the three young children he left standing alone. He never knew the man's fate or name.

Kolzow's daughter vividly remembered the accident, so each night they prayed together for "The Motorcycle Man."

The following week, Lake Park East mom Mary Lou Miller was at the school talking to the summer school staff when she mentioned her brother had been in a bad motorcycle accident. The staff said Kolzow had recently helped someone in a similar crash. They quickly connected the dots and Kolzow and Paul got in touch.

Kolzow went to visit Paul at Delnor Hospital in Geneva. At the time, Paul was in danger of losing his leg and ability to walk, and he was feeling down. Kolzow brought him Kit Kats and Hot Tamales (his favorite candies) and encouraged him to stay positive.

As he left, Paul said to him, "One of these days I'm gonna walk up to you and thank you."

That was in 2010, the last time they spoke.

Kolzow kept tabs on Paul, and heard about his 15 surgeries, serious complications and other struggles. He attended a fundraiser for him at Maywood Park, and the last he'd heard, Paul was doing better after four grueling years of recovery.

Then, on Nov. 6, Kolzow was in his office answering emails when he heard a commotion outside his office door. In walked Paul.

"I couldn't talk. I started to cry," said Paul, who brought a stuffed animal to give to Kolzow's daughter from "The Motorcycle Man."

"I just said, 'I told you I was going to walk up to you and thank you, and this is that day.' I kept my promise."

The two hugged, talked privately, and then proceeded to take an hourlong walk around the school.

"It was just amazing. It was an awesome feeling to see him moving around," Kolzow said. "It's really unbelievable to see how the doctors were able to get him back to this point. (In the hospital), I said to him 'You're gonna do it, you're gonna do it. And 4½ years later, he did it."

Paul, 56, of Roscoe credits his "brilliant" doctors and trauma surgeons, especially Dr. Marc Zussman in Rockford, for saving his leg and his life.

With help from a donor bone, he can now walk without a cane.

A retired Northlake public works employee, Paul just started a part-time job driving a bus for a local school and volunteers as a "friendly visitor" for patients at Rockford Memorial Hospital, where he spent much of his recovery time.

"I remember what it was like to be in that bed," he said.

After 31 years of riding motorcycles, he has no interest in riding one ever again. However, he's resumed another passion - playing the drums with his band.

Kolzow, an Elgin resident, refuses to call himself a hero, but Paul said the compassion he showed toward a stranger was admirable and extraordinary.

"There's evil in the world, but there's goodness, like Pete," Paul said. "It's not like he saved my life, but here's a guy who didn't even know me, and he was there for me. I said, 'You go home today, now, and tell your little girl, when she prayed for me to get well, I got well.' The prayers she said about 'The Motorcycle Man' worked."

Chris Paul, right, was in a serious motorcycle accident in 2010 and Lake Park East High School Dean of Students Pete Kolzow was one of the first to come to his aid. "There's evil in the world," Paul said, "but there's goodness, like Pete." Photo courtesy of Lake Park East High School
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