Crime & Safety
Firefighter of the Year in the 'Business of Helping People'
Mike Czmil of La Grange Park is one of the recipients of this year's Brookfield-LaGrange Park Lions Club's annual award, along with fellow St. Barbara parishoner Kenneth Bensfield.
Resident Mike Czmil said he was shocked to learn that he was nominated by his peers to receive the annual LaGrange Park Firefighter of the Year award from the Brookfield-LaGrange Park Lions Club.
“Nobody (a firefighter) feels like they deserve it (an award),” he said. “They’re just doing their job.”
He was just as surprised to discover that Kenneth Bensfield took home the organization’s Brookfield Firefighter of the Year honors. Czmil and Bensfield are fellow parishoners at St. Barbara Catholic Church in Brookfield. They’ve known each other for years having been involved in parish activities and also working together at fire scenes in the area.
Find out what's happening in La Grangewith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Interestingly, Czmil’s wife, Michelle, the religious education coordinator at St. Barbara, taught Bensfield’s sons at the parish.
Czmil recalls arriving at P.J. Klem’s Banquets in Lyons for the recently held awards ceremony and seeing Bensfield there.
Find out what's happening in La Grangewith free, real-time updates from Patch.
They kept asking each other, “What are you doing here? Are you getting the award?”
“Having us both be Firefighter of the Year is a shock,” said Czmil, who has two sons, Michael and Mark, and a daughter, Mackenzie. “It says a lot for our parish. A lot of what we do is based on our faith. We’re in the business of helping people, whether it’s working at the Fire Department, outside the Fire Department or working at the church.”
And that’s the key, in Czmil’s eyes: helping people.
Czmil works fulltime as a pressman at Darwill Press, Hillside, but when he’s off work, he’s on call as a firefighter/emergency medical technician (EMT). He’s served the community in this capacity for nearly 25 years.
“It’s not about the money; it’s about helping people and being with your peers,” he said. “We (firefighters) do a lot of training. We like to prepare for whatever incident we respond to.”
That training includes training new firefighters—something Czmil particularly enjoys.
“I like helping some of the new guys that joined (the Fire Department), training new personnel and passing on my knowledge,” he said.
Czmil’s dedication to serving LaGrange Park residents keeps him going strong, but so does the memory of a former LaGrange Park firefighter, , with whom Czmil worked.
Johnson, who went on to become Deputy Fire Chief at the Hinsdale Fire Department, collapsed and died at the Hinsdale fire station last year while undergoing department mandated physical training after returning from an emergency medical call with fire department units.
“I knew him very well,” Czmil said. “He was a good friend to everybody. He was always in a good mood. He helped a lot with training. He’s missed.”
Czmil also answers the call to lend a helping hand in ways not related to firefighting. When the Blizzard of 2011 hit on Feb. 1, Czmil, who lives a half-block away from the fire station, grabbed a snow blower and helped people clear their driveways and sidewalks in and around the neighborhood.
“We’re your friends and neighbors,” he said. “We’re walking through the Jewel next to you. We’re at the gas station; we could be anywhere. When the call comes, we (firefighters) respond.”
The Lions Club has presented Firefighter of the Year and Police Officer of the Year awards to LaGrange Park and Brookfield police and fire department personnel each of the past 17 years. The club also awards grants to each police and fire department to purchase equipment not covered in their budgets.
