Remarkable Women: Where are they now? 2024 Winner: Nancy Hampton

JOPLIN, Mo. — For the last five years, we've had the privilege of honoring a number of local women who go above and beyond to make a difference in their respective communities — and beyond.

So what has winning our annual Remarkable Women contest meant to them?

"Everybody was so supportive," said Nancy Hampton, St. Paul's UMC Director of Missions and Outreach.

Hampton is fresh off being named our 2024 local Remarkable Women contest winner.

"I'm so grateful for the opportunity and blessed to be able to be a part of this."

The director of missions and outreach at St. Paul's United Methodist Church in Joplin was chosen for the honor back in March for the many missions she helps organize for the congregation.

From mission trips to Nicaragua, to the Affordable Christmas program, to helping Afghan refugees — she's always working on something to reach more people.

"At St. Paul's, our congregation is getting ready for our Christmas Eve offering. And our Christmas Eve offering is going to two locations. One is Ascent Recovery Residences, and the other is Rainbow Network through Nicaragua."

As the 2024 winner, she received one thousand dollars to the charity of her choice.

She chose St. Paul's Benevolence Fund and the Affordable Christmas Fund.

She also got a trip to Los Angeles to meet other Remarkable Women from across the nation.

"Never been to LA before, but they met me at the airport, whisked us away to the hotel."

Nancy says the trip was an inspiring experience.

"We got to meet the network of all the other women from all over. And, I met the ladies from Missouri and the ladies from New York and just everywhere we got to meet people," said Hampton.

...which helped further motivate her into finding even more ways to impact our community.

"So, every time I think about what's going on and what we can do, I think about, 'Well, who did this?' And 'How did they do this?' We now have this network of women that we are Facebook friends with," said Hampton.

A fitting opportunity for the self-described empath who just wants to make people happy.

"No matter what I do, wherever I am, I am going to be working towards helping people."