***For immediate release***
Avon, Colo. – Jan Hiland, the Vail Valley Foundation’s 2017 “Volunteer of the Year”, is a somewhat reluctant recipient who has a very simple philosophy when it comes to volunteerism.
“I really feel there are other people who have been volunteering as much if not more than me for many years in the Vail Valley,” said Hiland. “Of course, I am extremely surprised and honored, but I kind of look at life as holes that need to be filled. You jump in and you fill the holes.”
Filling holes can include almost anything, and in a quarter century of Vail Valley volunteering, Hiland has done virtually everything – from chairing Wild West Days early on and raising tens of thousands of dollars for local elementary schools to helping open the Middle School in Gypsum to running events for the Vail Valley Charitable Fund to helping found Eagle County for Human Rights to volunteering for the 1999 Alpine World Ski Championships, the Red Ribbon Project, and Vail Resorts’ Epic Promise program.
Hiland will be honored for her work at a ceremony Sunday, Dec. 3 in between Giant Slalom runs at the 2017 Birds of Prey World Cup in Beaver Creek (attendance to the races, and the Volunteer of the Year ceremony, is free to the public.)
For Hiland, filling holes can also be much more than a mere metaphor - it can literally mean patching up the costumes of world-class dancers as the Wardrobe Mistress for the Vail Dance Festival and calming the nerves of never-ever dancers in the same role with the Vail Valley Foundation’s incredibly successful Star Dancing Gala fundraiser every year.
