If everybody did one thing to make the community better, Barry Bowers says, the community would have more volunteers than it knew what to do with.

It’s advice Bowers received from the late Ralph Raffelock, community leader, when he was younger, which he has lived by most of his life. But Bowers does a lot more than just one thing to make the community better. It is a philosophy that is at the heart of nearly everything Bowers does.

Bowers’s “day job,” as he calls it, is as a tax accountant and small business owner with Spectrum CPA Partners LLC. It’s a second career for Bowers that began as a small remodeling business owner in his late 30s. Deciding he didn’t want to work a physically demanding job like that the rest of his life, he set out to complete a degree in accounting.

Even that, he said, was borne of a desire to give back. Having been a small business owner himself, he wanted to be a coach and a resource for small businesses, something he saw as a pressing need in the community. As an accountant at Spectrum, he works a great deal with individuals and small businesses. That affords him the opportunity to do what he wants and still help other small businesses succeed.

“It’s fun being a part of somebody’s small business and watching them grow and succeed, and knowing that you had a little part in that,” he said.

Community involvement

Outside of work, Bowers serves on multiple boards, including the Quivira Council of Boy Scouts of America, Central Kansas Development Inc. and the Ellinwood Community Foundation. He is also a member of the Great Bend Kiwanis Club, where the group’s American flag project is a passion of his. In the past, he’s also served on the Great Bend City Council and with Habitat for Humanity.

Bowers said his passion for community service began as a young Boy Scout, and his involvement with the organization’s Order of the Arrow leadership honor society program.

“I really enjoyed that – learning how to plan things, how to run meetings, how to do service projects, how to organize them,” Bowers said. 

A lot of people he worked with over the years through the program were community leaders.

“Watching how they were plugged in (within) the community, (serving) just seemed like a natural thing to do,” he said. 

Having been involved in many different capacities in the community throughout his life, Bowers said everyone has the ability to make a difference. It starts by figuring out your interests, and finding a place in the community that can use those things. Most times, he said, you don’t really even have to look very hard to find that place. You just have to have a desire to serve.

This, he said, is where the aforementioned advice from Raffelock about involvement comes in.

Most people are pretty reluctant to  rasise a hand to volunteer, so those who serve often wind up being involved in many different things, he said. But if everyone found one place to serve, he believes the community would be very well off.

It doesn’t have to be a board, he said. It could be serving at church or your children’s school, or simply finding a community project to be part of. But, “it’s got to be fun. If it’s something you really enjoy and you’re passionate about, your going to be more likely to stick with it.”

Woodworking

Perhaps one of the things he is best known for is his hobby and passion for woodcarving.

It’s an activity Bowers picked up about 25 years ago when close friend Jack June encouraged him to take a class at the Great Bend Rec Center. The class only met only seasonally, but the group wanted to meet year-round. And so Golden Belt Wood Carvers was born. The group still meets every Thursday night at the Great Bend Senior Center and has between six and eight active members on any given week.

“It’s one of those things where it’s challenging, but that’s kind of the fun of it. I guess the frustration sometimes helps. It’s just a good way to distract you from other things,” Bowers said.

The reason he stuck with artistic woodcarving, he said, is because he’s always enjoyed woodworking and home repair and remodeling, so he enjoyed the chance to explore the creative side of woodworking. 

“(I like turning an) idea into a pattern, how to get the pattern on the wood, and get it cut out and carved, and how to do expressions or try to get movement,” Bowers said. “Jokingly, I tell people that’s how I use the other side of my brain. It’s not analytical or black and white like accounting and taxes.”

Passing on the advice

Bowers hopes his experience is evidence to younger individuals that you don’t have to have life figured out at 18 years old.

From woodworking to accounting, many of Bowers’ passions blossomed at a time in his life many look at as “middle aged.”

The sky is the limit in today’s world, he said, and it comes back to figuring out what you care about and putting in the work to make that passion a reality, no matter your age.

“If somebody doesn’t enjoy what they’re doing, I always encourage them stop and think about what options there are, because you spend a lot of time at work. If you don’t enjoy it, that’s not a good way to go through life.”

For him, it started with visiting with people in the community he respected and finding out what needs the community had. Involving others, he said, can help you find your passion.

“Pick somebody else’s brain,” he said. “We get stuck in our own mind sometimes, and we don’t really see all the potential or possibilities.”