Carpentersville’s volunteer of year wants just a smile in return

For nearly 20 years, Ken Pozehl has volunteered his time to causes ranging from helping paint the homes of seniors and veterans to making sure needy kids have a Christmas gift.

And what does he ask in return?

“All we want out of this is a smile. Make them happy for a day and you’d be surprised,” said Pozehl, a maintenance mechanic at a Carpentersville chemical plant. “Sometimes it brings tears to their eyes.”

For his efforts, Pozehl was named the village’s volunteer of the year; he’ll be officially honored at next month’s village board meeting.

Pozehl, 60, also was lauded for his work during the Northern Kane County Chamber of Commerce’s first Community Service Award celebration held last month. But he doesn’t crave the spotlight.

“I guess it’s the way I was raised — if you can help somebody, help them,” he said. “You don’t have to get something out of it to help somebody. The award was nice but it’s not why I did it.”

Pozehl has run the Paint-A-Thon the last four years and in the years before that, he was responsible for painting, power washing houses before they’re painted, estimating how much paint was required and soliciting donations for the project.

Because he’s been involved in the program for so long and has lived in the village for 56 years, he still runs into the people he’s helped. Their happiness is everything to him.

Pozehl says volunteering is a calling, one he answers whenever he can.

“I like to do it and get it done and remain incognito,” said Pozehl, who declined to be photographed for this story.

Village President Ed Ritter has known Pozehl for years and said he always goes the extra mile.

“The last Paint-a-thon, he organized the whole thing and as they were painting this woman’s house, he noticed that her porch was in disrepair and she could get injured on it,” Ritter said. “So he went back and rebuilt her porch for her. That’s just the kind of guy Ken is.”

Pozehl’s work, meanwhile, can been seen all over town.

As a member of the parks commission, which he’s been part of for almost seven years, Pozehl helped secure signs for McNamee park and arranged its dedication in the late 1990s.

He spent two years serving on the committee that built the Veterans Memorial Garden in Carpenter park. His contributions were researching photos of the veterans and ensuring they were engraved on the various monuments — a project that took six months.

Pozehl also has assisted with cleanups at Keith Andres Park, designed and installed signs for Carpenter Park and helped the True Patriots Care Foundation set up flags in honor of the first responders who died on Sept. 11, 2001 and the soldiers killed in the ensuing wars.

If all that weren’t enough, Pozehl added to his volunteerism this year; he was part of Shop with a Cop, an annual event in which local police officers take needy children shopping for Christmas gifts at Walmart.