By her own admission, Natchez resident Mildred McNeil is a person who can rarely sit still. &uot;I’ve always got to stay busy doing something,&uot;&160;she said. So although McNeil, now 86, retired from her job as an office manager for Natchez’s Coca-Cola distributor in 1985, she has found a way to fill her schedule — by volunteering every chance she gets.

Her volunteer work started several years ago when Janet McNeely, director of the Natchez Retired Seniors Volunteer Program, asked her to serve on the RSVP board.

From there, she went on to serve as an RSVP volunteer with dozens of projects.

Those projects have included helping the needy apply for help at the Salvation Army during Christmas time, sending mailouts for the Natchez Opera Festival and the Natchez Children’s Home, and working with Special Olympics.

McNeil has also been a member of the Natchez chapter of the Pilot Club, an international community service organization, for 35 years.

And when Margaret Brown, volunteer coordinator for Natchez Regional Medical Center, spoke at a Pilot Club meeting about the need for volunteers, McNeil answered that call as well. Most of the time, McNeil serves as an attendant in the waiting room of the hospital’s cardiac and intensive care units.

There, she does everything from taking messages for family members and friends of ICU and CCU patients to making coffee to listening and talking with those who can do little but wait.

&uot;Sometimes, all these people need is someone to be there for them,&uot; McNeil said.

&uot;I enjoy knowing that I’ve helped someone.&uot;