Murray resident Greg Gierhart has a mantra he likes to use: “I’m retired but not tired yet.”
The phrase speaks to the level of commitment the educator – who taught for more than three decades in Murray and Calloway County – to helping his neighbors.
Gierhart was recently named the 2026 Kentucky Retired Teachers Association Volunteer of the Year for his continued work fighting food insecurity and poverty. The retired math and science teacher, who still serves as adjunct faculty at Murray State University said he owes his career in public service to his grandmother.
“She ingrained it, not only my dad but also within me, that giving back is something that you have to do,” he said. “She thought that was a very Christian thing to do. She was part of a family – one of 15 kids – and they were [all] helping each other out. And I think that's where it started from that little seed with that, and it's just been ingrained in me.”
Gierhart said that he started volunteering when he was a teacher but that it blossomed into community engagement when he got involved with groups like Needline and the Empty Bowls Project in Murray and Calloway County.
“I did football stats, basketball stats and things like that. I've been doing that for 30 years, so that's an accomplishment. I belong to Murray-Calloway County Need Line. I volunteer at Angels Attic once a week, and I like doing that because it gets me back to my roots in retail,” he said. “I'm on the board of the Main Impact Federal Credit Union. I enjoy that because I'm learning all kinds of things about finances and how the banking system works. I'm on the board of the Humane Society.”
Gierhart said he is particularly passionate about food insecurity and the kinds of work Needline does to fight hunger.
“Needline has a bunch of different caveats to it. One is our daily give out of food to people who need it. Then we have our once month thing where we are helping our senior citizens. And then we have a big fundraiser called Empty Bowls,” he said. “What I'm most excited about out of this is the partnership between us and Angels Attic because we're going to bring back Taste of Murray again. We're excited about that because Angels Attic is expanding what we call the old Sammon's Bakery shop next door.”
Gierhart is also part of Project Sprout, a local initiative that aids people in planting a garden as a source of food.
“Project Sprout sprung up because I think I saw something on TikTok or something like that. But a laundry basket, soil, burlap bag and then pouring in there and planting seeds: tomatoes, squash or something easy like potatoes. And we were lucky that we had some great people to collaborate with,” he said. “Calloway County High School gave us all kinds of seeds. Stella Market gave us plants. The Farmers Basket gave us some soil at a reduced price. The Murray Bank donated some money to help with the project. We planned for 150, but 400 people showed up for that.”
And Gierhart said people would be surprised to learn how easy it was to get community partners and volunteers to step up and get involved. He said you never know unless you ask and not a lot of people do.
“Part of it is just knowing people making connections, and I've lived in this community for 40 years. Some of the kids I've taught are now adults, and they're out there. So it's all about those connections and relationships,” he said. “It's always my adage: if somebody tells you no, go and ask somebody else. And there's somebody in the community that will help if they believe in your mission.”
He said the hardest thing about getting people to volunteer is just the first time of actually going and doing the activity.
“I can tell you it's hard to get to the first step to actually going and do it once. Just ask ‘can you help with this? This is what I'm envisioning.’” he said. “And if you want to get out and help in the community, there's plenty of things in Murray and Callaway County to do.”
