Jan Scott loves volunteering. That’s evident in her mission trips that took her from an impoverished Indian reservation in South Dakota to Central American countries of Nicaragua and Guatemala.
Scott has helped build homes in Nicaragua, served as a counselor at a handicap camp, rang bells for the Salvation Army during Christmas and helped distribute toys to poor kids at Christmas, organized a summer food drive.
Wait, there’s more.
She helped pack meals last year in Kansas City for Haiti hurricane victims, traveled to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and helped provide home building and transportation for needy families in Central America.
She’s worked with the Salvation Army, Habitat for Humanity, Special Olympics and several Christian churches that provided a way for her to volunteer.
Last week, Scott won Saint Luke’s Health System 2010 Global Health Volunteer of the Year.
What do you most enjoy about your volunteer work?
I think it just expands you as a person. It makes you a better person, so you can pass it on. I have a passion for it. People think you have to have special skills to go on a mission trip. You really don’t. You just have to have a passion to serve. God will place you where you’re needed. You also meet so many wonderful people when volunteering.
Was there a specific, personal experience that led you to do all this volunteering?
I was undergoing some personal things that made me want to serve. I just didn’t feel like I was serving enough. Once you start giving, it’s almost impossible to stop.
Are you more grateful for what you and the rest of Americans have compared to the people you help on the mission trips?
People have no idea what we have. Even the poorest of the poor here in America still have more than some of the people, say, in Haiti or the Dominican Republic. When I came back from the Dominican I told my grandkids “I didn’t see any kids arguing down there because they have nothing to argue over. There’s no toys. Nothing. Just dirt.”
Why do you think volunteering is important?
Not everybody can be a paid employee or to be paid for their services. There’s a gap between what people want to do and what they can afford to do. Volunteers fill that much needed gap.
