Jan Kruse can't remember the precise impetus that led her to begin volunteer work when she was just a child.

She started volunteering at a summer camp in Kansas run by the Institute of Logopedics when she was 12 years old and continued her work there until she graduated from high school.

"It was a touchstone for me and I've been doing volunteer work ever since," Kruse said. "I like helping people and always feel I get back much more than I give."

It's that attitude which contributed to State Rep. William Brownsberger's decision to nominate Kruse as one of this year's 100 Unsung Heroines through the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women.

"An unsung heroine is precisely what Jan is," Brownsberger said.

"She's one of those people who are all about getting things done. She doesn't care about getting credit which is probably one of the reasons she accomplishes so much."

Kruse is respectful, patient and very effective, he said. "She's someone who works effectively with everyone in town."

Kruse and the other 99 women, chosen from hundreds of nominations this year, come from cities and towns across the Commonwealth and each will be recognized for their outstanding contributions to their organizations and communities in a ceremony on Wednesday, May 19 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., in the Great Hall at the State House in Boston.

Kruse said she's done quite a bit of volunteer work since her teen years wherever she's lived. Since moving to Belmont in 1995, she's spent countless hours helping Belmont be an environmentally responsible community and conserve its natural resources.

Through her work as one of the co-chairman of Sustainable Belmont, Kruse was instrumental in bringing the town's Climate Action Plan to fruition. The Board of Selectmen and Town Meeting endorsed one of the plan's major tenants which is to have the community reduce it's carbon imprint 80 percent by 2050.

Brownsberger said he is extremely impressed with Kruse's efforts to help the town environmentally.

"She carried Sustainable Belmont forward to progress," he said. "It took a tremendous amount of work and effort to get the Climate Action Plan moving."

 It makes sense to conserve our natural resources, Kruse said.

"We can't and shouldn't depend on government to do everything for us. We can have a say in how our town can thrive and get to know our neighbors at the same time," she said.

Currently, Kruse is still working with Sustainable Belmont but resigned her chair in February. She is a member of the Town of Belmont's Energy Committee and will attend the group's first meeting this week.

In addition, Kruse is a member of Massachusetts Climate Action Committee and a Town Meeting member representing Precinct 3. When she's not doing volunteer work for the town and state, Kruse works as the communications manager for Mass Audobon.

Kruse said she loves helping people get involved in Belmont's path to greater sustainability because it helps to strengthen the community.

"One of the continual strings in the volunteer work I've done is helping to empower people," she said. "So many people in Belmont care about the enviornment and our natural resources. They want to work toward maintaing a good quality of life here."

Kruse said being environmentally conscious has been a way of life for her since she was a child. She vividly remembers the first energy crisis in the 1970s when her father told her it was everyone's patriotic duty to conserve oil and support the president.

"That really stuck with me," Kruse said. "I've been aware of conserving resources ever since."

It's not that hard to do, she said, and if everyone took a small step it would collectively make a big difference.

Some of the steps people can take include buying compact flourescent light bulbs, have a free energy audit performed by Belmont's Municipal Light Department, buying a car with better gas mileage, walking or biking when suitable, carpooling with people, eating less meat, buying local food – particularly from June to October at the Belmont Farmer's Market which she helped found five years ago and, if people have children, participating in the walking school bus for the elementary schools where a parent walks a group of children to school each day.

For her part, Kruse recycles, has a garden in the summer so she can grow her own food, takes public transportatiion or walks whenever she can, hangs her laundry out to dry outside and added insulation, weather stripping to all windows and Energy Star appliances in her home.

"I love the attitude of the current 'Green' movement," Kruse said.

"There's a feeling of abundance to converving resources rather than a sense we're depriving ourselves,"  said Kruse.