Special to The News:

Scott Street believes so much in teaching young people to help other people he wrote a textbook about it.

His “Life Skills for Student-Athletes,” published by McGraw-Hill in 2006, is used as a teaching resource in colleges around the country.

“I’ve always been involved personally in giving back to communities,” said Street, Director of Athletics at Lamar State College Port Arthur since 2010. “Certainly, at colleges and universities, giving back has always been an important thing.

“I believe that student-athletes should learn about volunteering and mentoring. If we can instill it now at their age, hopefully it lasts a lifetime going forward.”

Street’s stressing good works, exemplified by the more than 1,500 hours of volunteer community service by LSCPA student-athletes in the last school year, was recognized Thursday when he received the Julie and Ben Community Service Award in a short ceremony at Lamar University in Beaumont.

The Rogers Family set up an endowment in 1979 to annually provide a $1,000 cash award to a member of the Lamar University faculty or staff who made a significant contribution to public service in Southeast Texas. The award was expanded a decade later to recognize four annual winners, one representing each of the four regional campuses carrying the Lamar name.

Dr. Freddie Titus was this year’s award recipient from Lamar University, Sherry Kilgore the winner for Lamar Institute of Technology and Charlotte Chiasson won for Lamar State College-Orange.

“As long as I’ve known Scott he has been busy volunteering in the community and, most importantly, developing the next generation of community volunteers,” Lamar State College Port Arthur President Dr. Betty Reynard said as she presented Street to a group of about 100 past winners and family members at the University Reception Center atop the John and Mary Gray Library.

“Scott takes volunteerism to the core of his being,” Dr. Reynard, a past winner of the award, said of Street. “He expects the students he helps manage on our sports teams to be involved in the community, and he’s been very successful at it.”

Street was athletic director at the University of Texas-Pan American for 2005-08 and interim AD for a year at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi before coming to Port Arthur. He has more than 25 years’ experience in intercollegiate athletics.

An athletic trainer for Wake Forest University for nine years before moving into administration, Street has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Iowa, a master’s of science degree from Mankato State University and an MBA from Wake Forest.

Street is a board member of the YMCA of Southeast Texas and Junior Achievement. He was chair of the United Way of Mid and South Jefferson County’s Appropriations Committee in 2015; he has been a board member for the National Athletic Trainers Association.

He is active in the Port Arthur Chamber of Commerce, the Port Arthur Rotary Club and is on the Advisory Council for the Port Arthur Independent School District.

LSCPA Athletic Department student-athletes and staffers have participated in raising $35,000 for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, collected eyeglasses for the Lions Club, boxed canned goods for the Rotary Club holiday drive, served Thanksgiving dinner at a nursing home, made sandwiches twice a month at the Port Arthur Hospitality Center, assisted with the Alzheimer’s Walk and several fundraising 5K and 10K running events. They have helped with elementary school reading programs and presented sports clinics at the YMCA.

Street said it’s always fun to see how the teenagers and young adults representing LSCPA Athletics mature in their outlook toward helping others.

“The first time they go out with us for a service project, they say, ‘Aw, do we really have to go?’” Street said. “The second time, they say, ‘That wasn’t so bad,’ and the third time, they’re asking ‘When can we go back?’”

Street joins 21 other LSCPA winners of the Rogers Community Service Award. In chronological order of recognition, they are:

Marie Snider, Tom Neal, Dr. Charles Gongre, Bill Worsham, Dr. Beverly Parker, Peter Katrude, Jimmet Lawrence, Dr. Jeffrey L. Haven, Mavis Triebel, Dr. Janis Hutchins and Terry Jackson.

Also, Linda Tait, Conrad Cooper, Dr. Barbara Huval, Dr. Laura Stafford, Janet R. Hamilton, Mary Wickland, Andrea Rodriguez, Cindy Guidry, Amanda Smith and Adriane Champagne.