An interior decorator was recently recognized for the copius time and talents she has devoted to the Hormel Historic Home expansion project in Austin.

Belita Schindler received the Community Service Award on Monday, June 29 from the Rotary Club.

The Rotary Club honors three people each year for serving Austin through community service, education and governmental service. The other recipients were Kari Behn and Mark Waleski.

Schindler, who owns Belita’s Commercial and Residential Interior, has been part of the Hormel Historic Home Building Committee for nearly four years and volunteers about 15 hours each week to the expansion project. She is working with architects, designers and the board to select everything from the wainscoting to the custom-made carpet.

The expansion is scheduled for completion Nov. 1.

Laura Helle, Executive Director of the Hormel Historic Home, nominated Schindler for the Community Service Award after working with her for several years on the Building Committee.

“She has done an incredible job,” Helle said. “She is so passionate, and a really good problem-solver.”

Schindler’s enthusiasm for the project was clear from the moment she began talking about it.

“This is like play for me,” she said, while pulling out an array of rich-colored fabrics, carpet designs and wallpaper samples for the new addition. “We’re trying to make [the new addition] feel like the rest of the house.”

Schindler has worked with the Hormel Historic Home many years before the building project began.

Although the Rotary Club recognized Schindler mostly for her volunteer work on the Hormel Historic Home’s restoration project, she has served the community in many other ways since moving here in 1972.

She currently is a member of the Rotary Club, as well as the Police Civil Service Community, and has been involved in many other reconstruction and restoration projects around Austin, such as with the Austin Public Library, Paramount Theatre and Main Street.

Alice Holst, who served as President of Rotary club for the past year, recognized the way Schindler uses her “love of design” to support the community.

“If something good is going on in the community,” she said, “Belita has her hands in it.”