Madison woman given free minivan, immediately uses it to help others

MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) - A gift of a minivan is enough to make any Christmas Eve special. Immediately using that gift to help others makes it extraordinary. And, that’s exactly what Jacquelyn Hunt did.

A few weeks ago, Hunt, who is a social worker and works with the Boys & Girls Club of Dane Co., totaled the van she uses for her job when it slid during a snowstorm and crashed. When the local Boys & Girls Club Chair Emeritus Jenny Meicher-Santeck heard about her plight, she reached out to Schoepp Motors.

With the help of the donors from the Boys & Girls Club, Schoepp Motors offered to give away a minivan. Of course, no one told Hunt. She showed up thinking she would surprise a local mom with a big gift.

“I’m still processing it right now. Actually, it feels amazing,” Hunt said, after discovering the surprise was meant for her.

The Boys & Girls Club of Dane Co. CEO Michael Johnson pointed out that this one gift will end up helping a lot more people, saying it will allow her to keep helping hundreds of families around the community.

Hunt is wasting no time either.

She and Meicher-Santek are teaming up to help a single mother and her five children, who have been homeless for the last two years.

“It’s been a struggle, a long hard struggle,” Tylisa Jones said. “As soon as you go forward then you get slapped back. Doors [are] constantly closing.”

But this season, Jones and her family have a new roof over their heads. Because it is still empty, Hunt and the Boys and Girls Club decided to fill it with gifts and household items.

The delivery came in Hunt’s new van.

“This is the first time my kids are able to enjoy [Christmas], open up more than one gift. It’s excitement,” Jones said. “This was a blessing I was not expecting at all. I thank each and every last one of you.”

“I have to serve. I was created to serve,” Hunt said.