I’ve found some community volunteering inspiration at the Bensenville Community Public Library and Jill Rodriguez, director of the library, who was recently announced as the 2007 Bensenville Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Community Service Person of the Year.

She has been heavily involved with the community for more than 30 years, but Rodriguez had no idea she was even nominated for the award.

“They usually ask me for suggestions, and I didn’t suggest myself, so I was pleasantly surprised when they told me I won,” she said. “I would have never put myself in that category because so much of what I do in my free time overlaps with my work at the library. I don’t think about how I did this or that for who or what, I just do it because I love this community and want to contribute in any way I can.”

A New Jersey native, Rodriguez moved to Bensenville in 1977 after graduate school to be a librarian. Through the years, she married a Bensenville boy, raised three kids here and moved up the public library ladder to her current position.

“I felt like this was such a wonderful place to work, that what I did made a difference, so I never had a desire to change jobs because I knew I couldn’t find everything that I loved about my job and the community anywhere else,” she said.
Rodriguez’s love of Bensenville was so infectious that both her mother and sister moved here too.

“What I love so much about Bensenville is that no one is content to be the status quo; everyone is constantly striving to make improvements so that our town is an even better place to live,” she said.

Some of Rodriguez’s most treasured memories over her 30 years in Bensenville include the passing of the library referendum, the restoration of the Korthauer Log House and other Bensenville Historical Society projects, the development of Redmond Recreation Complex, and the successes of both the Music in the Park and the annual tree lighting. She’s also extremely proud of her work with the Youth Services Coalition, Character Counts, the Bensenville Rotary and the Bensenville Intergovernmental Group.

“I always thought it was perfect to work and live in the same place,” she said. “I’ve been able to influence things that make a difference, and when I was raising my kids here, I felt it was even more important to show them how to be part of a community and not just live there. Everyone who lives here is an important person in the development of our community and I think that’s just great.”

Speaking of “the development of our community,” Rodriguez is looking forward to more cooperative programs between the library, village, Park District, schools, churches and other organizations.

“Bensenville is always looking at what we can do better and how we can work together more and it feels good to know I’m a part of that,” she said.
 

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