Mary Kay employees adapt disabled woman's house i

Susan Kohn surveyed with wide eyes the small army of painters and carpenters scurrying through her house Saturday.

"I never expected anything like this," she said. "I feel like I am Cinderella and the ball is at my house."

Her legs lost to diabetes more than two years ago, Kohn has had problems adapting to her Hoffman Estates house while using a wheelchair.

Enter the employees of Mary Kay Cosmetics in Hoffman Estates, who chose to help Kohn for their Make A Difference Day project.

Naomi Buerkle, the company's general manager, said someone at the Hoffman Estates Chamber of Commerce suggested Kohn to the group.

"We came out and met with Susan and asked what we could do to help," Buerkle said. "She was very shy and really did not want to ask for anything, but we were able to come up with our own ideas."

Doors and wall moldings were damaged by the wheelchair throughout the home, some rooms needed a fresh coat of paint and cabinet doors had to be replaced because they would not open with the chair in front of them.

So Buerkle and co-worker Karen Sax rallied 25 Mary Kay employees and their spouses, armed with hammers, saws and paintbrushes, and the makeover was on.

Doors and moldings were replaced, cabinet doors were replaced by curtains that slide to the side and new paint was splashed about liberally.

Sax said the inspiration to take up Kohn's cause came from a tragedy within the Mary Kay family.

"We have a fellow worker in Dallas who was severely injured in a car accident," Sax said. "We knew we could not go out there to help, so we were excited to have someone here in a similar situation to help."

Make A Difference Day brings out millions of people across Chicago's suburbs and the country on the fourth Saturday in October to celebrate the spirit of helping those in need.

Sax said this was the largest project the group has taken on to date. They have worked at food pantries and hospices in past years.

Buerkle said the volunteers were not only giving their time to the project, because they covered most of the cost of the materials needed as well.

"We would get together to talk about what needed to be done, and people were just saying, 'I'll get the paint,' and 'I can bring lumber,' " she said. "I have some really great employees."

Her benefactors coming from a cosmetic company, Kohn also was in for a satin hands treatment and a facial before the day was out.

And on their way out the door, Buerkle said, the volunteers were also going to present Kohn with a memory book of the experience.

"We will have a collection of before and after pictures to give her," she said. "We just want her to be able to show it to people and say, 'Look, this really did happen.' "