Community activist to get Shelter Inc. annual award

For two decades, Shelter, Inc. has used its annual Charity Ball to raise money for children's services in the Arlington Heights area, including a boy's group home built in 1996.

At the 20th anniversary ball, starting at 6 tonight at the Hyatt Regency Woodfield in Schaumburg, the group will hold silent and live auctions along with a dinner. The group will also present the Paul Buckholz Award, named for a former Arlington Heights police chief.

This year, that award will go to Bob Pavlick, safety coordinator for Home Depot in Palatine, who's known for his good works, but someone who has had a troubled past.

Pavlick was instrumental in organizing a project day for the Boys Group Home in Palatine, where he and volunteers spent a day performing a landscape makeover, said Carol Brown, director of development for Shelter Inc. Home Depot donated all the materials for the project.

"They provided us with a wonderful enhancement," Brown said.

Brown said Pavlick also helped the group open its new thrift shop in Elgin. He organized volunteers and donations to make a bathroom compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act and helped put up shelving, hooks and racks.

"He's a person who has done a great deal for the community," Brown said.

Pavlick has also been on the board for the Palatine Opportunity Center and has worked with Journeys from PADS to HOPE, WINGS, Omni Youth Services and the Hospice Foundation of Northeast Illinois, among others.

While he's been known around town for his good works for years, Pavlick's name took on a dark tint last year while he was a juror for the George Ryan trial.

He was dismissed from the jury months into the trial after it was discovered he lied about a driving under the influence conviction in 1994 and other past police incidents on a juror's questionnaire.

However, even at that time, those who knew him in Palatine and knew his work through Home Depot touted him as a man committed to community service.

Brown said the organization wasn't aware of Pavlick's connection to the Ryan trial, but she said that wouldn't have altered the decision to honor him.

"That really doesn't negate all the good he has done," she said.

For more information on the dinner, which is nearly sold out, call (847) 590-6188, extension 21, or visit www.shelter-inc.org/charity_ball.htm.