For more than 40 years, Fred Kinder has been a figurehead in Columbus’ volunteering community.

Such breadth of service was acknowledged by the Columbus Exchange Club on Thursday when the group awarded him the 44th Andy Morris Book of Golden Deeds Award.

Kinder said he was ecstatic in hearing the surprise news during the club’s weekly luncheon at Lion Hills.

“It’s hard to keep a secret in Columbus, Mississippi, and I had no idea until I walked into the luncheon,” the 67-year-old retiree said. “I saw so many of my dear, dear friends and I just feel so humble. It’s not something you want recognition for, you just do it.”

Kinder moved to Columbus in 1971 from Fort Lauderdale to help open a Sears, and later worked in a frame shop and a bookstore, as well as part-time in a Columbus urology clinic. An active tennis player, Kinder won many local, regional and state tournaments. Once he started to volunteer, he became enthusiastic about the role in his community and came to see it as his calling.

“I just realized there’s so many volunteer opportunities out there, and I just don’t understand how people can just retire and not do anything,” he said. “To me it gives me a reason to get up in the morning.”

‘There’s always something’

For more than 20 years, Kinder has served Camp Rising Sun as a member of its board and as treasurer, as well as through various other capacities: fundraising chair, camp volunteer chair and camper recruitment chair. He started as a volunteer more than 30 years ago and said it was he and a group of Junior Auxiliary members that decided to keep it afloat when its doors almost closed.

“It really is quite an experience… just watching the children experience a normal camp life and forget about their illness,” he said. “We probably get more out of it than they do.”

Kinder also served on the board of the Loaves & Fishes soup kitchen. He serves on the Exchange Club board, of which he is former secretary and current fundraiser chair for the group’s annual holiday cheese sale. He is also a board member for Columbus Main Street and a Market Street volunteer. He has served on the city’s zoning commission, as an election commissioner, a reading program mentor at Cook Elementary School, a Columbus Humane Society board member, a Meals on Wheels volunteer, a Columbus Chamber of Commerce volunteer (and Arts Volunteer of the Year award recipient), a Columbus Community Theater board member, and a board member of the Columbus Arts Council.

In addition to serving Loaves & Fishes for the Columbus United Methodist Church, where he is a member, Kinder also serves with the “Keenagers Group,” a seniors ministry and has been an active member on the serving committee.

“There’s always something,” Kinder said of his days now dedicated entirely to volunteering since retiring four years ago.

‘Great volunteer’

Exchange Club member Lee Burdine said several members nominated Kinder and that the application process was limited in sharing all that he has accomplished as a volunteer.

“It’s hard to estimate the number of hours (of Kinder’s volunteerism), but it’s thousands,” said Burdine. “He’s just one of those great volunteers that shows up and takes charge and gets a lot of things done.”

Fellow member Tommy Hunt said Kinder was an obvious choice for the award.

“It’s because of the time that he donates…it’s the Book of Golden Deeds Awards and we look upon that as somebody who works behind the scene, not somebody who makes the headlines or anything,” he said. “(Kinder) just personifies volunteerism.”

Sam Luvisi is news editor and covers education for The Dispatch.