The Lombard Service League has named Karen Hansen as 2026 Woman of the Year for her volunteer efforts around the community.
Hansen, a hospital registered dietitian, has been a Lombard resident for over 50 years. During the early 2000s she was an educator with the University of Illinois Extension Nutrition Program, teaching food stamp-eligible individuals.
She was active in various schools’ committees for the first 25 years, and was also active in Boy Scouts.
Hansen is involved at St. Pius X Catholic Church and is a member of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. She and her husband have picked up food from the Northern Illinois Food Bank for the society, worked with couples in the pre-marriage ministry and supported the marriage ministry for Lombard and Villa Park couples.
Hansen recently joined the Lombard Garden Club, assuming leadership roles—such as with the Seed Savers program that promotes seed saving and seed swaps that support the new seed library at the Helen Plum Library.
Hansen enjoys gardening and quilting, as well as giving time and support to four sons, four grandchildren and a newly-arrived great-grandson.
Hansen recalled how she had no idea she was the Woman of the Year—she went to the library on Wednesday, April 22, on the pretense of giving a talk about the Seed Savers program.
After the Rotary Club's announcement of the Man of the Year, Hansen continued, when the Woman of the Year's biography was being read, she still didn't make the connection, though she admittedly wondered why several people—including her husband—were at the library. She noted with interest the similarities between her and the yet-unnamed recipient, but when “Seed Savers” was mentioned, Hansen realized the announcer was referring to her.
“I was thrilled, to be quite honest,” Hansen said modestly. “This was never, ever on my radar.”
“Of course, I'm very honored,” she added.
Hansen said her service to the community is a given, because “This is the way our parents brought us up; to do things for others.”
She also related that her motto, with respect to community support, is, “If I can help, why wouldn’t I?”
