St. Louis HELP Volunteer Worked for Five U.S. Presidents

Few people in St. Louis have worked for five U.S. Presidents. Jan Burmeister has done that and more.

Burmeister, a resident of Sunset Hills, also has worked for the Olympics, a Billy Graham Crusade and Promise Keepers; founded a radio and television ministry; led Kansas City’s 150th anniversary celebration; helped set up the Department of Homeland Security; and served as Assistant Director of Development at the University of Missouri.

These days, you can find Burmeister volunteering for St. Louis HELP, the not-for-profit Health Equipment Lending Program that freely loans home medical equipment to any person who needs it. She also volunteers with Grace Place Wellness Ministries, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, a local family support group, and the Christian Motorcyclists Association.

When not involved with those groups, Burmeister helps out by driving friends and neighbors who need a ride to various appointments or need assistance around the house.

“Since I retired from the work-a-day world some years ago, I’ve found that volunteering is something anyone and everyone can do and gain real satisfaction from helping others. It is great for the heart, the soul and mind,” asserts Burmeister, a cheerful, energetic and busy woman who grew up in St. Louis.

“Our world has a huge population of people who are needy, and an abundance of benevolent not-for-profit agencies. I’ve found that it is very easy to commit to helping them.

“How you do that? You just do it!”

Burmeister’s unique career in Washington, D.C., included working for President Gerald Ford’s Press Advance Office; in President Jimmy Carter’s Chief of Staff Office; in the Vice President’s Scheduling Office during the Reagan Administration; handling Presidential correspondence for President George H. W. Bush; and Presidential correspondence as well as in the Homeland Security administration for George W. Bush.

“In 1989 when the first President Bush said, ‘Any definition of a successful life must include service to others,’ and started the Points of Light Foundation, I was inspired to make a lifelong commitment to volunteering. For me, the payback is priceless,” she says.

When people and organizations learn that Burmeister worked for five U.S. Presidents, they often ask her to reflect on those experiences. Burmeister accommodates such requests when she has time and, as a result, she wrote two anecdotal documents for use in presentations, often to church groups.

Here are some excerpts, starting with an embarrassing experience with President Gerald Ford’s re-election campaign:

“I was on the Press Advance team during President Ford’s campaign. Upon arriving in Seattle, we checked into the Edgewater Hotel and went to our rooms to unpack before setting up the office. Looking out my window over the water, I spotted a suspicious ‘wire’ that seemed to reach from the room just below me into the water, so I called a Secret Service agent to check it out, thinking maybe someone was trying to tap into our phone lines. He rushed out, but returned a short time later and told me to follow him. He took me out to the entry marquee and pointed to the bold lettering that read, “Fish From Your Window.” It took me awhile to live that one down!”

And this embarrassing experience in the office of President Jimmy Carter’s’ Chief of Staff Hamilton Jordan:

“One wintery day, there was a particularly deep chill in the office due to the snow storm outside. I decided to light the fire built so beautifully in the fireplace, so it would toast up by the time Hamilton conducted his morning meeting. No one told me the flue wasn’t open and, within minutes, the Oval Office hallway was filled with smoke. I doused the fire with two full pots of coffee, but not in time to prevent Secret Service agents from running everywhere. It took awhile for me to live that one down, too!”

In addition to handling personal correspondence for both Presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, Burmeister helped answer mail for Millie, the beloved English springer spaniel owned by President George H. W. Bush and his wife Barbara. Thousands of letters from around the world arrived at The White House for Millie.

“We thought we were so clever, dipping Millie’s signature paw in ink and slapping it on sheets of paper to get an image that could be made into a rubber stamp. Once the rubber stamp came, however, the stamp and inkpad approach produced a paw print that beaded up on photographs. FBI agents to the rescue! They let us use their heavy-black-fingerprint-ink-on-a-roller to produce a convincing paw signature...On some days you could walk in our office and see dozens of Millie photos laying around waiting for the paw print to dry. On those days, if friends or family asked what I did at The White House, I told them I couldn’t talk about it.”

Burmeister traveled on Air Force One with the Bushes when they returned to their home in Houston, Texas, on the day President William Jefferson Clinton was inaugurated. She helped set up their new office, and still remains in close touch with the Bush office staff. Several of them have served George or Barbara Bush for 35 years, so she is not alone in believing they are “two of the finest people that ever walked the face of the earth.”

Burmeister loves all of the organizations where she volunteers, and has a special place in her heart for St. Louis HELP (http://www.stlhelp.org). When her own mother needed a wheelchair in 2011, Burmeister borrowed one from the organization, which loans everything from canes and crutches to hospital beds, wheelchairs, scooters, elevated toilet seats, lift chairs, walkers and more for free to anyone who needs it, for as long as they need it.

“When I met executive director Laura Cannon Singer and toured St. Louis HELP’s warehouse, I said to myself, ‘This is a group I want to be involved with.’”

St. Louis HELP cleans and reconditions all equipment that is donated by people and keeps the inventory at its warehouse in Olivette before loaning it at no cost to people in need or their caregivers. In this way, St. Louis HELP diverts about 140 tons per year that would otherwise end up in the solid waste stream.

Burmeister says, “Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance don’t always cover the cost of renting or buying certain types of home medical equipment that people desperately need. St. Louis HELP provides this equipment at no charge. For many people, this makes the difference between living independently or living a life of dependence and immobility.”

Burmeister provides on-site volunteer support before and during St. Louis HELP’s twice-a-year equipment donation drives, helps out by placing posters and flyers, and handles other tasks that arise during the year. In 2014, she nominated St. Louis HELP for a national Point of Light Award from Points of Light, the nation’s largest volunteer management and civic engagement organization. It won.

“St. Louis HELP assists a huge population of needy people in greater St. Louis, and one of the benefits I enjoy is meeting many of those people, hearing their stories and feeling as if we have helped them out during difficult times of need.

“As I said: The payback is priceless.”

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