Barbara Lockhart is Brigham Young University's faculty athletic representative to the Western Athletic Conference and National Collegiate Athletic Association. She's the first woman to serve in this position.
But serving in positions and being a representative is old hat to Lockhart. She's used to being a pioneer. She is well known for her community work.Recently, the city gave Lockhart a Community Service Award for her volunteer work with the Utah Valley Food and Shelter Coalition.
Lockhart, a native of Chicago, made her original mark as a world-class speed skater. One day her father, who worked for Montgomery Ward, brought home a pair of speed skates.
The field next to her home was flooded with a fire hose in the winter and turned into a frozen pond for skating.
There, Lockhart was spotted by a former Olympic speed champion who later became her coach. In 1960, women's speed skating became an Olympic event. Lockhart won the 500-meter trials and became the country's first woman Olympic speed skater. She competed in the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley and the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria.
After her speed-skating days, Lockhart obtained bachelor's and master's degrees from Michigan State University and her doctorate from BYU.
While working at Temple University, Lockhart taught a Spanish-speaking LDS seminary class in the ghettos of Philadelphia. While teaching at the University of Iowa, she convinced the LDS Church's Relief Society to help operate a local food kitchen for the poor and homeless.
Lockhart said she learned about community activity from her parents. Her father served on the Chicago City Council for many years and her mom was active in Scouting. The Betsy Lockhart Award is presented to Chicago Scouters with 25 years of service.
Lockhart became a member of the board of directors of the Utah Valley Food and Shelter Coalition when she returned to Provo in 1991. Until she arrived, the shelter only served cold meals. She helped convince local Relief Society members to prepare hot meals for the shelter. Now, the shelter has its own kitchen and prepares hot meals on site. Restaurants and catering businesses also contribute.
"The coalition gives us a chance as people in the community to help and not just throw money at the homeless," she said.
But serving hot meals is not the coalition's main focus. The coalition's goal, through its mentor program, is to make patrons self-dependent. The mentor program operates on the spirit of voluntarism.
"We need to get to know these people and become their friends," Lockhart said.