1. Sean Roberts
Profile Assignment/ Final Draft
06/08/2015
J2100-3
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

2. Sean Roberts
Profile Assignment/ Final Draft
06/08/2015
J2100-3
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

3. Sean Roberts
Profile Assignment/ Final Draft
06/08/2015
J2100-3
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.

4. Sean Roberts
Profile Assignment/ Final Draft
06/08/2015
J2100-3
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.