GIRARD, Kan. — Is the next Magnus Carlsen, Garry Kasparov, or Bobby Fischer growing up in the town of Girard? 

Elementary and middle school students from USD 248 had the chance to learn chess for the first time or sharpen their skills under the direction of new teen librarian Bill Goodwin, Wednesday. 

Goodwin renamed the program formerly known as “Teen Time,” “Power Hour.” It offers energizing activities for young adults.This week, the students learned chess. Last week, the students learned about robots while the final two classes will pertain to theater games and poetry. 

“I wanted it to be for as far down as 11 (years old),” said Goodwin. “… I said why don’t we call it ‘Power Hour’ and we are going to do it in the month of May and then in June it’ll be our summer reading program and then we’ll start back up again in September or maybe August when school starts up again. 

“I’m trying to do something different every time. I’m not really a crafts guy … Theater games were my first one, and then I did this thing with robots … I learned as much as the kids did and today (Wednesday) I’m teaching chess because I’m an avid chess player … Not only teach the kids the basics of the game but teach them kind of the opening strategies so that they at least have a chance right off the bat.” 

Goodwin, a retired English instructor, enters his sixth week at the Girard Public Library. 

“When I moved here, I retired and became an empty nester,” he said. “… I had kids in K-12 for 26 years straight, so that wasreally cool and I moved to Girard and also retired the same year … I lasted in retirement for about 10 months but I just kind of wanted to do something and this job became open and I thought this would be perfect for me. I love books, I was an English teacher, and they need a teen librarian.” 

Goodwin says he is enjoying the small-town life. 

“I love Girard, Kansas,” he said. “I really love Pittsburg.” 

Obtaining his Bachelor of Science at the University of Kansas and his Master of Science at Wichita State, Goodwin began his teaching career at Hill City Elementary in Graham County, just northwest of Hays. 

He then served as a high school English teacher at Fowler High School in Meade County before becoming a pre-K through fourth grade principal at Altoona-Midway Elementary School. Prior to making his way to Girard, Goodwin was a high school English teacher in Neodesha. 

Goodwin added that the staff at the Girard Public Library have been welcoming and helpful throughout the recent month. 

“Loved every minute of it,” he said. “The people here are what make it great. One thing I’ll say is it’s a lot busier than I thought it would be. I think of librarians as being pretty sedate but man, between the programming and the things like Ag Day and the specials and then just checking in a million books and dealing with people, you are busy all the time. 

“There really is no minute to just relax but everybody supports this library. I’m good at customer service, I love people, I’m a people person, I was a teacher for 30 years, so I’m in my element. I am totally just as happy as can be and the people here. We have three full-time librarians who have all been here for over 20 years … No turnover, nobody wants to leave this job. Once you have this job, you are so happy to have it.” 

Aside from his duties at the library, Goodwin has kept busy creating and playing music at gigs across the Four State area. Goodwin noted that since he arrived in the area last July, he has played around 70 gigs in places such as Arma, Pittsburg, and Joplin. 

“I’ve been writing songs since I was 19 years old but I was a dad and I was an English teacher and I was a theater teacher and I put on plays and productions and I never really had time to do anything with music,” he said. “Pittsburg is awesome. I go to both TJ (Leland’s) open mics, I go to the one at Keltoi (Winery), I played at the Pittsburg Farmers Market.

“I played for Eclectic Soul Studio during ArtWalk. I played six hours during ArtWalk, it was wonderful … I just play guitar and I’m kind of more of an electronic musician that’s why I make my own backing tracks but it’s all original music and it’s all danceable, it’s kind of country-rockabilly, family-friendly rock kind of thing.”

Goodwin noted that he is scheduled to play at Third Thursday in downtown Joplin on May 21 around 7 p.m. and at the Empire Market in Joplin on Saturday, May 16, from noon to 2 p.m.

This reporting is made possible, in part, by the Support Local Journalism Project Fund. Learn more at: southeastkansas.org/Localnews.