Janet Kinzer said she is still walking on air.

The Athol woman received AARP Idaho's Andrus Award for Community Service last week during a dinner and ceremony at The Coeur d'Alene Resort.

"It was fabulous," said Kinzer, a retired teacher who still holds a nursing license. "They treated me like a queen."

The award is the AARP's most prestigious volunteer honor, given as a tribute to the organization's founder, Dr. Ethel Percy Andrus. One individual in each state is chosen for the award each year.

Kinzer, 63, was nominated by Idaho AARP President Tom Trail, a former longtime member of the Idaho House of Representatives. Kinzer said she got to know Trail, of Moscow, in the last few years through her volunteer efforts on behalf of AARP. Trail contacted Kinzer about four months ago and asked her to meet him at a restaurant in Plummer so he could interview her for the nomination.

"I was so excited. I had no idea of the scope of it," Kinzer said.

Kinzer was honored just to be considered for the award.

"Tom Trail is a wonderful person. He's intelligent and kind, and he cares about people," Kinzer said. "It's been an inspiration to me, just to know this man."

The admiration is mutual.

"Her spirit of service has left an indelible mark across Idaho," Trail said, in AARP's announcement of the award.

Kinzer has a long history of helping others. She credits her volunteer spirit mostly to her mother, who Kinzer describes as very caring and loving. But there were other good role models.

"I know it's a cliche, but it's true. I pay it forward," Kinzer said. "I had such good leaders, such good teachers that always took their time with me, and I was in 4H."

A lifelong lover of children and animals, Kinzer later volunteered with 4H as an adult.

Her most recent efforts have been on behalf of veterans. She has helped coordinate and organize several Veterans Stand Downs. The events have helped more than 6,000 veterans and their family members during the last five years.

Through the years, Kinzer used her talents as a nurse and an educator time and again to help educate, inform and support seniors and others in the community.

She trained participants in the AARP Driver Safety Program. She got involved in the organization's efforts to ensure that seniors have food and medicine.

In the past six years, Kinzer worked with the Medical Reserve Corps and the public health office to train seniors and others in the region to prepare for public health emergencies and disasters.

Kinzer has coordinated and assisted with more than 100 blood drives during the last decade.

"There are myriad things that Janet could have done with her time, but she chose to make her community a better place, one person at a time," Trail said. "She chose to share information, education and inspiration with people in her neighborhoods and communities. She chose to make a real difference in the lives of others by giving of herself."

Kinzer says she considers herself blessed for having had the opportunities to serve.

"I get so much out of it," she said.