Service Gladiator - Quintessential Barrington Magazine

Community
By Kevin Griffin
Photo: Tom Benjamin
Bob Lee and his wife, Anne .
Service Gladiator • Bob Lee, 2011 BADC Citizen of the Year
ob Lee has lived a life of service and in May was awarded Barrington
Area Development Council’s 2011 Citizen of Year. The award, determined
by a group of past winners and members of the BADC board, recognizes an
individual who works quietly behind the scenes to serve the Barrington community
and other charity organizations.
“Bob is recognized for his infectious energy, quiet commitment to make things
better, and for caring,” said BADC board member and former Citizen of the Year
Norval Stephens.
“I look at the list of people who have won it before me, and it’s very special to
now be walking in their footsteps,” said Lee. “I look at this as an honor, but also as a
responsibility, to carry on in serving.”
Lee’s most publicized service over the last several years has been his “Ride for
Three Reasons,” a cross-country bike ride to raise money for American Cancer Society,
Les Turner ALS Foundation, and the National Hospice Foundation. Lee has done
the ride twice, in 2001 and 2007, and plans his third in the fall of 2012.
From left: Pam Reiss and LeeAnn Atwood
Photo: Susan McConnell
70 • Quintessential Barrington | QBarrington.com

Community • Service Gladiator Bob Lee
Photo: Susan McConnell
The BADC Annual Dinner was held at the Wamberg Estate
“The ride has done something so special by bringing charities together,”
Lee said.
Bill Lee, vice president of BADC and co-chairman of the Citizen of the
Year selection committee, said that Bob jumped out as an obvious choice
for the committee.
“You don’t have to go much further than to just look at his resume,”
said Bill Lee. “He [Bob] has done all sorts of things in bettering this community.”
A community that service gladiator Bob Lee calls a “very special” place
to be honored for volunteerism.
“I don’t think many communities have our spirit of volunteerism,” said
Bob Lee. “It means something special to be recognized for something like
this in Barrington.”
Along with the bike ride, Lee also donates a portion of all sales from his
window treatment business to charity.
Lee gives credit to his wife Anne for her support throughout all of his
charity work, saying that he doesn’t know many wives who let their husbands go ride a bike for five
months. Lee’s contributions to the community however do not only come in the form of charitable checks,
they come from the click of his camera.
“I am just sharing the beauty of the world,” says Lee, who is hard to catch anywhere without his camera
around his shoulder. “There is a natural beauty we are blessed with in this world,” said Lee, “and that’s
what I capture.”
Along with his next bike ride in 2012, Lee says the Citizen of the Year honor is one that only inspires
him to give more.
“I hope to keep giving as long as I live,” said Lee, “and with my camera, I hope to never stop clicking.”
Photo: Susan McConnell
Photo: Julie Linnekin
From left: Dan Keck, Tara Kelleher,
Dede Zwilling, and George Yapp.
Kim Duchossois, presenter of the BADC
Citizen of the Year Award, and Bob Lee
QBarrington.com | Quintessential Barrington • 71

Community • Service Gladiator Bob Lee
Photo: julie linnekin
From Left: Jesse Patton, Theresa Patton, Pastor Zina Jacques, and Andre Bell at the BADC Annual Dinner
Photo: Susan McConnell
From Left: Kathy Weidner, Norval, and Diane Stephens at the BADC Annual Dinner
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