Jim Stingl
‘I’ve got the time, the talent, the tools and the desire,’ says retiree
Volunteer puts in 40-hour weeks rehabbing apartments for recovering addicts.
The average volunteer in America puts in about four hours a week. Bill Buehler does 10 times that much.
For three years now, he has led the effort to rehab an apartment building in Milwaukee for men who are putting their lives back together after years of drug addiction, homelessness and prison.
And the 72-year-old retired aviation worker does it 40 hours a week.
“I’ve got the time, the talent, the tools and the desire,” Bill told me. “I’m what’s considered a workaholic. I worked with my dad as a kid. Part of my relaxation is working.”
He volunteers for Serenity Inns, which strives to provide a safe place for men to kick their addiction to alcohol and other drugs. It began in 2004 in a large, renovated house at 2825 W. Brown St.
Men who completed the highly structured program over several months were sent out into the community to find healthy and safe living arrangements. This proved difficult for some. They needed more time to build up a work history, credit rating and healthy habits.
So in 2016, Serenity Inns purchased an apartment building not far away at 832 N. 25th St. for its graduates. The name fits: Alumni House.
When it’s fully occupied later this year, 14 men will live for up to 18 months in seven two-bedroom furnished apartments, with an additional unit for an onsite manager and another serving as a community room. The residents must be employed and pay $525 a month for rent and utilities.
And they must remain sober and pass random drug screenings.
Bill is a firm believer in the mission.
“It’s a program designed to give them tools so they can look at themselves and try to figure out why they want to use drugs and booze. There’s no one cause and no one cure. It has to be the individual who has to come up with the cure,” he said.
Bill and his wife, Lorraine, live in Whitefish Bay and attend Fox Point Lutheran Church, which supports the Serenity Inns dinner program. Lorraine serves on the board of directors and Bill came on as a volunteer maintenance man in 2010.
With the purchase of the second building, he knew the renovation could become very expensive. So he stepped forward to lead a brigade of volunteers to rehab each apartment, one at a time. Old carpeting, cabinets, flooring and light fixtures were ripped out and replaced.
“This is what he gets up and does every morning,” said Virginia Zignego,
Serenity’s development director. “He shows up every day with his plastic lunch box and just gets right to work.”
Executive Director Ellen Blathers calls Bill awesome and a valued member of the Serenity Inns family.
“He would never tell you about him coming over in the middle of a snowstorm to fix a furnace or to take his own money and go out and buy fans for the guys in the Alumni House so they don’t overheat. He’s that kind of person,” she said.
A capital campaign of $750,000 is making the Alumni House purchase and renovation possible.
Bill grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and drew inspiration and expertise from his father, Emil, who could build or fix anything, despite spinal meningitis that left him with fused hips.
Bill became a jet engine mechanic in the Air Force and served in Vietnam. He came to Milwaukee to take a job as a flight mechanic at Allis-Chalmers, helping to fly company executives all over the world. He later worked at Midwest Express in quality control, at Air Wisconsin in regulatory compliance and as a consultant for the FAA before fully retiring in 2014.
Men in the Serenity Inns program sometimes join Bill and other volunteers in the rehab effort. Some have asked why he works so hard for no pay.
“Because I enjoy it,” he tells them. “And I’m helping you to try to help yourself. I hope I’m inspiring them to do something different in their lives.”
For major work, such as plumbing and heating, Bill calls in the professionals. He also doesn’t go up on the roof at his age.
Later this year, Bill will step aside and Serenity Inns will be looking for a new maintenance guy or gal. But he plans to stay involved in the organization and its mission.
He’s rightly proud of what’s been accomplished.
“Some of the guys say this is the nicest place they’ve ever lived.”