McHenry record shop owner is known for helping others. Now he’s the one in need.

Tim Wille quietly uses a Facebook group he created and the record store he owns to help the McHenry community, those who know him said.

“Everybody knowns of his reputation and his generosity to others,” said Sue Low Meyer, McHenry’s former mayor.

Through the McHenry, The way we like it. Facebook group and his store, Vinyl Frontier Records, Wille reaches out to its members when a resident needed help.

“Tim has used that page and the record store as a central location for a number of community outreach projects that he has done and gotten others involved in,” said resident John Gasek.

“I thought it was time to give back to him.”

—  Kathy Howe, coordinator of a fundraiser for Tim Wille

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, Wille posted about a family who was facing eviction, unable to pay their rent, Gasek said. With the help of others on the page, the rent was paid and the residents were able to stay in their home.

“He has a good following because he has a good heart,” Gasek said.

The community is now stepping up to help Wille. He was hospitalized with pneumonia shortly before Christmas. The illness worsened, and Wille was placed on a ventilator. According to a post to the record store’s Facebook page, Wille was taken off the ventilator last week.

Then, in a post to the McHenry page, Wille laid out some details of his recovery.

“I am looking at months ... of physical therapy just to learn how to walk again. It seems impossible to reteach myself how to walk, it is an incredible difficult road,” Wille wrote.

His friends have set a fundraiser to help with that recovery for 4 to 9 p.m. Feb. 1 at the McHenry Moose Lodge #691 at 3535 N. Richmond Road in Johnsburg.

The $15 event includes a mostaccioli dinner, live music, 50/50 raffles and basket raffles, but more is planned, said Kathy Howe. She is coordinating the fundraiser with Gasek and doesn’t know Wille personally.

“I follow the McHenry Facebook page. I have seen over the years the things that Tim has done for the community, out of his own pocket,” she said. Those things include paying for car repairs for people in need, finding people a place to live and making sure people who needed it had food, she said.

“I thought it was time to give back to him,” Howe said.

Kim Ribar, owner of Kim and Patty’s Cafe, introduced herself to Wille after seeing him on Facebook. Wille is a well-known sweet tooth, so she brought him a dessert to get to know him.

“We talked for an hour about random things,” Ribar said, and Wille posted about it on one of the many Facebook pages.

“It was the sweetest post. It was not about who he is but who I am,” she said, adding that meeeting happened years ago when the record store was on Riverside Drive in McHenry.

It moved to 4720 W. Elm St.-Route 120 after Wille bought a building there in 2020.

Ribar also saw him in the last few days, when he asked on social media if a friend could swing by the hospital and bring him some Oreos.

When Wille is released from the hospital, Ribar said, he will need in-patient rehab. While the store is being covered by an employee, Wille is not earning now, either, she said.

“There are a lot of unknowns right now,” Ribar said.

Ribar is working on setting up a bank account for the donations and fundraiser. Those who would like to donate a basket for the raffle, a check, or anything else for Wille, can send them to the Moose Lodge, 3535 N. Richmond Road, Johnsburg, IL 60051.

Anyone with questions about the event also can call the lodge at 815-385-6955.

A planning meeting for the fundraiser is set for 11 a.m. Sunday at the Lodge and Howe invites more people to get involved.

“We need to get volunteers to sign up to help,” Howe said.