Growing up in McHenry as the youngest of seven, Barb Neises saw her mom set the standard for volunteerism.

The family didn’t have a lot of extra money, but her mother, Ellen Berent, managed to give extra time to McHenry’s American Legion and the Polish Legion of American Veterans, where she was a past president of the women’s auxiliary.

Neises’s father, who died when she was 9, was a veteran, as were two of her older brothers. Because of those connections to the military, her mom would make the trip to the VA Hospital in North Chicago once a week for 15 years to visit with patients – all while working two jobs, Neises said.

“I remember growing up and spending Christmases at the Moose Lodge″ while her mom volunteered there, Neises said. “They would have Santa come and hand out presents. That was a lot of my Christmas presents.”

When her mom died in 2018, Neises and her siblings learned that she had quietly donated to other area charities, “things we didn’t even know about. She was about giving back,” Neises said.

What her mother taught was how to have empathy and compassion for others, and to appreciate what volunteering does for your own mental health.

“How can you walk away from an event where you helped other people [who were] sad or stressed ... when you have made a difference to someone else’s life in your community?” she said.

Over the years, Neises volunteered as a softball coach for her daughter’s team, as the ice cream social chair for their school’s PTOs, as a Brownie leader and at her church.

“I just wanted to give back to the schools and have a connection there with my children, too. I was trying to set an example for them,” Neises said.

Now, much of her volunteer time is focused on the McHenry Riverwalk Foundation. Her neighbor, John Smith, asked her to join the nonprofit board.

“I got her on the Riverwalk Foundation, and she took off running,” Smith said.

Bill Hobson, director of McHenry’s Park and Recreation Department, said Neises “has really done a lot to put our community first. She’s suggested ideas and then taken ownership and leadership of those ideas” for the foundation, Hobson said. “She has a passion and an impact.”

For the past few years, she has helped to hire the musicians and food trucks for the foundation-sponsored Summer Sunset concerts at Miller Point Park.

One of her first Riverwalk Projects was the McHenry Chalkwalk. The second-annual event is set for Aug. 30.

“I want it to be bigger and better, with more artists and more awareness for art,” Neises said, with spaces for musicians and children, along with the chalk artist.

Her latest idea, as a fundraiser for the foundation, is the riverwalk’s mural project. Set for a July 4 unveiling and in recognition of the country’s 250th anniversary, the project invites volunteers to purchase tiles and paint them.

Once the tiles are turned in, they will become part of a mural featuring a bald eagle and an American flag.

“She said, ‘Let’s do this,’” Smith said, and they got the mural project going.

“That is the way she is. She makes it happen and doesn’t stop,” all while being “totally bubbly and totally cheerful,” Smith said.

Her daughter, Nikki Neises of Woodstock, said her mom was involved in everything as Nikki and her brothers grew up.

“I have a big sense of community from her, and I have always valued that,” she said. “There is a selflessness that my mom has always had, and she instilled that value in me.”

That is the lesson that matters, her mother said.

“Seeing the difference that it is making in my children’s lives, that is the best feeling in the world,” Neises said. “If I can touch somebody else like that, that is what is important to me. It is not about myself.”