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Rick McKernan is a lifelong volunteer.

McKernan started volunteering while he was in college at the University of Kansas. His

focus is mainly on children’s volunteer organizations. He helps with the Downtown

Optimist Club along with his membership on the Board of Directors for the Diabetic

Children’s Camp of Central Missouri, also known as, Camp Hickory Hill.

About five years ago, a woman from Kansas City called the Downtown Optimist club on

behalf of her father who had participated in the club’s annual soap box derby in 1938.

She asked Rick McKernan if he had a copy of the Columbia Tribune article that her

father had been featured in. Excited to bring joy to this family, McKernan looked the

article up and found it on the cover of an issue from September of 1938. On one half of

the front page was the article about the derby that had taken place, with this woman’s

father as a centerpiece of the story. On the other half of the page, McKernan said, was a

headline about Hitler and World War II. He said it reminded him that even when there is

horror in the world, there are still good things happening in the local communities. The

woman, who contacted McKernan for the article, drove all the way from Kansas City to

Columbia with her father to retrieve a copy.

This is the story that McKernan says stands out in his mind the most. That remembering

how much it meant to this man, the tenderness of the emotions that lead a man to put

forth so much effort to maintain such a memory, is the reason he volunteers. McKernan

says, “After 75 years, his memory of the derby meant so much to him that he wanted to

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share it with his children and grandchildren before he died.” Volunteering is a way for

McKernan to help create memories.

McKernan makes his living as an insurance agent. At the beginning of his insurance

career, McKernan traveled. He traveled to France during his college years, and lived in

Berlin from 1977 to 1986. Living in Berlin during this period of time was not unlike

being from Kansas and living in Columbia during heated Missouri-Kansas rivalries.

The experiences McKernan has had with volunteer work throughout his life have made

him passionate about helping children. The Downtown Optimist Club is dedicated to

helping kids in the Boone County area. The organization raises money and funds

projects for the Boone County area youth. He’s been a part of this club for 20 years.

Looking back, McKernan recognizes that the organization didn’t realize how it’s “little

derby” was impacting the people that participated. Throughout more than 30 years that

McKernan has been volunteering, he has learned to recognize this impact. Children from

foster care, children with single parents, and children with two parents or unconventional

families come together through the different organizations of which McKernan is

involved. His business is insurance, but he is most passionate about helping others. He

is dedicated to helping children, and others admire his ability to do what he does for those

families.

Children from all different family dynamics come to the soap box derby to have fun. It’s

a way for them to spend time with their loved ones and build something together.

McKernan is touched by the way these people’s lives are transformed, even in the

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smallest ways. He said, “I’ve been blessed with the option to do many different things,

and want kids to have the opportunity to do many different things as well.”

The Optimist Club is not the only organization McKernan is a part of. Outside the

Columbia city limits, Camp Hickory Hill holds camp activities for children with type-one

diabetes. McKernan is a diabetic and has dedicated time for the last four years to be an

active member on the Board of Directors for the camp. He said, “I’ve taken a special

interest in helping kids. I like that I can identify with them by having diabetes.”

He doesn’t hold any role larger than a vote on the board, but Nate Wisdom the program

director at Camp Hickory Hill said that McKernan painted all the showers in the cabins

during the summer of 2014. Wisdom described McKernan, as a kind man who really

enjoys volunteer work and that painting the showers was a big job that McKernan tackled

by himself.

Jessica Bernhardt, the camp director of Camp Hickory Hill said that McKernan is a quiet

man. That he’s always very friendly and doesn’t demand a lot of recognition. He just

likes to volunteer, and keep to himself.

McKernan has been married for 33 years to Susie McKernan. He has two fully-grown

children, a son Cory and a daughter Stacey. His grandchildren, Stacey’s children, Jace,

Reece and Haley, enjoy participating in the soap box derby sponsored by the Downtown

Optimist Club. They all attended the derby held on June 7, 2015.

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Steve Winters, another volunteer, met McKernan through The Downtown Optimist Club.

They have been associates and friends for 20 years. Winters said that the thing he admires

most about McKernan is his determination to get things done, and to do them right.

According to Winters, McKernan has progressed to the office of lieutenant governor for

the East MO District of Optimist International while having held every office leading to

that one. He’s helped to orchestrate events such as Bike Safety Day and Patriotism, and

dresses in a green elf hat at the Optimist Christmas Tree lot for the children.

McKernan has been a volunteer for over 30 years; so long that he can’t offer a definitive

number of years. He started when he was in college and continued throughout his

lifetime. Now, in his 60s, he continues to devote time volunteering for children, and

raising money for children oriented organizations. He’s made a lasting impact on many

people’s lives and has claimed their lives having had an impact on his.