Judge honored for community service with Barth Award

Clint Hull feels a strong connection to TriCity Family Services.

And it goes beyond the fact that the circuit court judge of the fourth judicial subcircuit in Kane County was honored Thursday night with the 32nd annual William D. Barth Award for community service at Riverside Receptions in Geneva.

"It was 1983 and John Lengle, of TriCity Family Services and my first soccer coach, was in charge of the Peer Leadership program at St. Charles East, and he asked me to get involved," Hull said. "It was my first time in helping others, and I went off to college and took that with me.

"I came back very interested in helping my community."

And help he did. Hull, as presiding judge of the juvenile division, has had a key role the past four years with the Kane County Treatment Alternative Court.

His focus has been to stabilize offenders in that court, assisting them in getting treatment and trying to get them to return to a better lifestyle.

"We're partners in this kind of work," Hull said of the agency and his work in helping offenders battle mental illness.

"I also find it interesting that I was born in 1967, the same year TriCity Family Services was created," Hull said.

Lengle was on hand to present the award to Hull, saying he has used his judicial career to add "all sorts of volunteer activities around it."

Part of that volunteer work includes speaking to students at area high schools about the various dangers and lasting effects of bad decisions, Lengle said.

"Volunteering is the ultimate exercise in democracy, because when you volunteer you vote every day about what type of community you want to live in," Lengle added.

In addition to his work in Kane County, Hull has also been selected by the Illinois Supreme Court and Illinois Judicial Education Conference Committee to teach his fellow judges at biannual conferences.

In other community service, Hull was elected a commissioner for the St. Charles Park District for eight years, serving as its president from 2002 to 2004

He also served as the park districts' representative to the Fox Valley Special Recreation Association and as part of the intergovernmental committee during his time with the board.

He was instrumental in opening the St. Charles Underground teen gathering spot for the park district and worked with the board and local legislators to obtain the property that eventually became the James O. Breen Community Park on the west side of the city.

Other groups in which Hull has been active in the past include the Greater St. Charles Schools Educational Foundation committee, the Norris Center board of directors, the Boys and Girls Club of Elgin, Big Brothers and Big Sisters of the Fox Valley, and the Operation Snowball substance abuse prevention program.

Other Barth Award nominees honored for their work were Walter Bamert Jr., Judy Burgess, Becky Furnish and Kristie Granquist Spurgin Dienst.

The agency has honored a top volunteer with the Barth Award since 1985, when Frank Burgess was named as its first recipient.