Lives of Consequence
Scott A. Wittig ’94
In his roles as a motivational speaker for young adults, a coordinator with Lighthouse Family Retreat, and an assistant vice president at North State Bank Mortgage, Scott Wittig ’94 has found a way to serve using his talents and his passions.
At HWS, Wittig was a psychology major and a member of the soccer team. After graduation, he went on to become a motivational speaker for young adults who feel they are at a dead end. Known as “The It Guy,” he has written two books, “The Second Day” and "Holy IT!” and, with that background in service, has recently taken on a leadership role with the Florida-based Lighthouse Family Retreat.
When a young friend of the family succumbed to brain cancer, Wittig, his wife Jeanne and two children discovered Lighthouse Family Retreat and decided "it was a great fit and idea for our family to go serve a family like hers that was living through childhood cancer."
Founded in 1999, the Lighthouse Family Retreat offers fun, family-centered activities to bring families together during the tumult and challenges of living through childhood cancer. Through the generosity of more than 50,000 hours of donated time, volunteers provide a carefree environment for children to be children and a safe place for parents to share and connect with others living through similar life challenges. Just months after saying goodbye to their friend, Wittig and his family proceeded to serve at one of the 14 annual retreats in Florida.
"About five seconds into our first retreat, I felt called to help Lighthouse get retreats going outside of Florida and in our state of North Carolina," says Wittig, who is currently an assistant vice president and mortgage loan officer for North State Bank Mortgage in Apex, N.C. "The retreat was so well organized and thought out and served the families in all the ways they needed to be served. It also seemed to fit with my outgoing personality, my passion for helping children and families in crisis and I knew that my network I had built through 17 years (at that point) in a sales position would prove to be very valuable to the cause as well."
This August, thanks to Wittig's outreach and fundraising, Lighthouse Family Retreat hosted its first retreat in North Carolina. The inaugural retreat in Atlantic Beach served 11 families who traveled from other locations in North Carolina and as far away as Virginia, New York, Michigan and Texas.
As logistics coordinator for the North Carolina retreat, Wittig raised more than $10,000 from individual donors and was able to get the Miss North Carolina pageant to adopt Lighthouse as the beneficiary of the service project for their pageant that was held in June. Two of the Miss North Carolina contestants served during the entire week of the retreat in August -- and eight others volunteered at the "Unbirthday Party" held at each retreat.
For Wittig, service and a career aren’t mutually exclusive; in fact, they inform each other.
"I believe that too many people tend to ‘silo' their career from their service work and other things that are important to them," he says. "I feel fortunate to have found that it all goes together. Moving in this way makes it very easy to have a balanced life because you don't feel like you're bouncing from one thing to another -- it is all part of one overall purpose: to serve others with your gifts, talents and passion."
Wittig will begin fundraising for future retreats through www.omaze.com. He can also be reached at www.scottwittig.com.