Just two days after musicians of all genres gathered together for the Hope For Haiti Now telethon (which raised roughly $60 million for Haitian earthquake aid), American Idol Kris Allen has announced that he is journeying to Haiti next week to personally participate in the relief efforts.

During a radio interview on B97 FM in New Orleans before performing the national anthem at Sunday’s NFC Championship game, Kris revealed: “I am actually going to Haiti. Obviously, I wanted to do something to help out. I was actually going to do that telethon thing, but then somebody hooked me up with going [to Haiti] and just helping out in the next couple days.”

Kris in fact has an extensive history of doing missionary work overseas. Long before he was crowned season 8′s American Idol, the former church music director traveled to Burma, Morocco, Mozambique, South Africa, Spain, and Thailand, “just doing kind of philanthropy stuff, just trying to help people out.”

Kris explained during his B97 interview: “This is the stuff that means the most to me, going out and helping people. And obviously, the thing that happened in Haiti was just a tragedy. I feel blessed that I get to go over there and help people out.”

Fast-forward to the 3:34 mark of the B97 interview clip below to hear Kris’s discussion of his upcoming Haiti trip:

If there was ever evidence that Kris Allen is a true American idol–and a real American hero–this is it. Kudos to Kris for making American Idol and America proud, and good luck to him in Haiti.

Audio Interview.