Carolyn Dressler Honored for Volunteerism

The Wauwatosa Distinguished Citizen Award Council will honor Carolyn Dressler on April 27 as its 2010 Distinguished Citizen of the Year for her untiring volunteer service to the community. The recognition event will take place at The Blue Mound Country Club.

The prestigious award is not given lightly.

“We call for nominations each January and have specific guidelines for our nomination process,” said Judy Randall, president of the council. According to the set of rules governing nominations, candidates must have a “significant voluntary contribution to community life in Wauwatosa” and their work must not be financially compensated or be an unpaid extension of a paid job responsibility.

Carolyn Dressler was nominated jointly by the Wauwatosa Historical Society and Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church.

Dressler’s activities with the Historical Society include planting the gardens at the Kneeland-Walker House and working on Wauwatosa’s Oral History Project, gathering first-person reminiscences of the city’s past.

“I am proud of the gardens and get great satisfaction doing the oral histories,” Dressler said.

Dressler also researches the former occupants of the residences chosen for Wauwatosa’s annual Tour of Homes. She has chaired a number of committees at her church, including the Administrative Board, Memorial Foundation and Staff Parish Relations.

Janel Ruzicka, executive director of the Wauwatosa Historical Society, has known Dressler for more than 15 years. She considers Dressler to be one of their most loyal and energetic volunteers – as well as one of the most knowledgeable.

“Carolyn’s service reflects a deep commitment to the community’s past, present and future,” she said. “It would be nearly impossible to recreate what would have been here [in our Victorian gardens] in 1890, but we feel with Carolyn’s research and guidance our gardens evoke the feel of the 1890s.

"Our 1 1/2 acres of land are tended totally by volunteers who are recruited, taught and organized by Carolyn.”

The gardens were featured on HGTV’s "Great American Gardens’" and PBS’ "Great Lakes Gardener" a number of years ago.

A Wauwatosa resident since moving here with her husband, Horst, in1965, Dressler learned the value of helping others as well as an appreciation of history from her mother’s knee.

“I was brought up to volunteer; my mother was a very active volunteer and was working with her church and the Viroqua Historical Society until she was in her 90s," Dressler said. "In fact, my grandmother did historical research for a newspaper in Marshfield until she was 86. I don’t know if it was nature or nurture, but I grew up with people who were interested in history.”

Dressler contributed to her family’s genealogy research and can trace her roots back to Dutch settlers of the 1600s.

Dressler’s began her volunteering with the Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church and with a number of Wauwatosa school PTAs.

“I received a call from the PTA, and the woman said, ‘You need to volunteer,’" Dressler recalled, "I protested and said I was too busy with our two children, but she said, ‘No, you need to volunteer.'”

Dressler not only acquiesced but, through the years, became president of a number of school PTAs as well as serving as president of the Wauwatosa School District’s PTA Council. The couple’s children carry on the volunteering spirit; son Matthias is an assistant soccer coach in Whitefish Bay, and daughter Monika volunteers with a dog rescue organization in Michigan.

“Volunteering is part of the culture of our family – and of Wauwatosa,” Dressler said.

Dressler worked for 20 years as a teacher’s aide, working with children with special needs. After retiring in 2000, Dressler began to volunteer in the library of Madison Elementary School. When a Madison teacher was killed in a fire a few years ago, Dressler helped the students mourn and heal by assisting them in planting a memorial garden.

Ruzicka is happy that this woman who works so hard behind the scenes is being honored.

“She not only volunteers herself, but brings others who learn to enjoy and realize the importance volunteerism has on the quality of life in our community,” she said.

Ruzicka added that if the core members of the Historical Society made up lists of people they could count on to volunteer for upcoming projects, “Carolyn’s name would appear on every list.”

Dressler does not feel the need to have her personal efforts acknowledged but sees her award as another chance to spotlight the need for people to help others.

“I hope this encourages volunteerism,” she said. “It’s all worth it.”