BUTLER TWP — Satisfaction in life for Bill Hetrich comes simply through helping others.

“I always said that if I got paid for my volunteering, I wouldn’t want it; I wouldn’t enjoy it,” said Hetrich, 70, of Butler Township.

“I just enjoy helping people.”

Hetrich has volunteered for numerous projects with the Butler Lions Club for nearly 40 years, but has donated even more of his time in the past decade since retiring from teaching at Broad Street Elementary School.

While he was teaching, Hetrich said he would arrive about 7:30 a.m. and stay until 5 p.m. to put in extra time at the school.

Since retirement, he continues to tutor small groups of fourth graders in math once a week.

With the Lions Club, Hetrich helped coordinate the Island Bicycle Rodeo in Butler; cleaned a two-mile stretch of Route 8 for Adopt-a-Highway; constructed part of the new Blind Association offices in Butler; cleaned up a playground in South Hills, Allegheny County; and worked with adults and children at the Pennsylvania Lions Beacon Lodge Camp for the blind.

“It’s tremendous,” he said of the camp, which offers activities and events, including fishing, for blind people from across the state.

Hetrich also serves on the Butler Hospital diabetes clinic advisory board, at the Community Health Clinic of Butler County as a greeter, and at the Seneca Hills Bible Camp in Franklin.

In his spare time he helps his neighbors.

“People call me that need help, and people that are older that need help around the house, I’ll go and help them,” Hetrich said.

“I’ve been very fortunate in my life, and I’ve had a great life and I want to give back,” he said.

Dorothy Lascuola, Butler Lions Club president, called Hetrich one-in-a-million.

“He’s my hero,” she said.

A visual impairment prohibits her from driving, so Hetrich has been her chauffeur during her presidency, she said.

“I have never heard anybody say anything negative about him,” she said of Hetrich.

Over the years Hetrich has collected a library of memories, but many are tied to children “just having fun and laughing,” he said.

Sometimes Hetrich’s wife, Janice, will bake banana bread for the Broad Street Elementary students, many of whom are disadvantaged, he said.

“To give these kids something homemade, they just appreciate it,” he said.

Raising money to send Cody Fend, then 2, of Summit Township to China in June for stem cell treatment for his blindness also was a volunteer career highlight.

Cody can now identify the different colors of his toys, which made Hetrich as pleased as he is with his own grandchildren.

“That’s probably the No. 1 thing that made me so proud” to have been involved, he said.

Volunteering consumes 16 to 20 hours of Hetrich’s week, but he admits he schedules his “regular” life around his commitments.

Tuesdays are spent at Seneca Hills, Wednesdays he tutors at Broad Street and Wednesday afternoons are clinic days, he said.

Janice Hetrich does not sit around while her husband works, he said.

“We’re not together all the time, but she volunteers and I volunteer,” he said.

Sometimes they are together at the health clinic, or they volunteer separately, like at Seneca Hills, where Janice Hetrich works as a nurse while Bill Hetrich serves as handyman.

“You don’t have to ask him for any help,” Lascuola said. “He thinks about things, ways in which he can help you before you think of them.”

Hetrich’s retirement from Broad Street Elementary created a void because students adored him, she said.

The sixth graders he taught called him Mr. Hat Rack because of his height and some every year were disappointed if they were assigned to another class, Lascuola said.

A few years ago at an annual club Christmas party, guests were asked to bring White Elephant gifts, gag gifts for other members.

Hetrich received a pair of boxer shorts, which he put on over his pants, Lascuola said.

He just likes to have fun,” she said. “Our club would be nothing without Bill.”

<b>ADDRESS:</b> Butler County Association for the Blind, 322 N. McKean St., Butler, PA 16001<b>PHONE:</b> 724-287-4059<b>WEB SITE:</b> www.lionsclubbutlerpa.org<b>SERVICES:</b> Butler County Association for the Blind, Pennsylvania Lions Beacon Lodge Camp, Community Health Clinic of Butler County, Butler Health System Foundation diabetes fund/management center, low-income eyeglass program, Adopt-a-Highway maintenance of Route 8, drug and alcohol awareness prevention youth poster contest, Red Cross blood drive coordination and collection of recycled eyeglasses, hearing aids and cell phones.<b>WHO IS SERVED:</b> Anyone in need<b>AREA SERVED:</b> Butler<b>STARTED:</b> June 15, 1923<b>MEMBERS:</b> 42<b>TO VOLUNTEER:</b> Visit the Web site or call 724-287-4059<b>OTHER LIONS CLUBS:</b> Cranberry Township, Evans City, Petrolia, Saxonburg, Slippery Rock and Zelienople