NORTH BRUNSWICK — A township Scout leader credited her son with inspiring her to live a life of service.
“I wanted to the best for my son, and if I could do it for him, I always figured I ought to try to do it and give as many kids as possible that same opportunity,” Jessica Vizthum said after receiving the North Brunswick Parks & Recreation Advisory Committee’s Youth Advocate Award during the Dec. 7 council meeting.
Vizthum has lived in North Brunswick since 2005. She has coached soccer and teeball, and has been a class mom at Parsons Elementary when her son Charlie attended first to fifth grade.
Since Charlie was six years old, Vizthum has been a Boy Scout leader and is currently the assistant scoutmaster of Troop 18.
Vizthum and her son volunteer weekly at the Parsons Community Outreach Program, where they offer homework assistance to students in first through third grade.
She was also selected as the 2015 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Human Rights Community Award recipient.
She started a knitting group at Reed/Smith, from which she donates baby blankets to Robert Wood Johnson University’s Children’s Hospital for Christmas. The Monday before Christmas, she collects all of the handmade blankets from her friends and co-workers to deliver to the hospital.
“If you believe in scouting, and I certainly do … it is an important, important part of our community … and is alive and vigorous in North Brunswick in large part to Jessica’s efforts,” Mayor Francis “Mac” Womack said.
Vizthum said her recognition is because of a large community effort.
“You don’t do nice things to be thanked but I think it’s really terrific to live in a place where the town takes the time to appreciate the work of its community,” she said. “This is an entire community of caring.”