Bernard Walters does not have a weight problem.

Maybe Walters keeps trim because of the pace he sets for himself with community involvement.

Walters teaches math and coaches varsity tennis at Williston-Elko High School.

He also is the advisor for the WEHS math team and leads the WEHS chess club.

His other school-related activity is being the "doorkeeper" for Club Truth, a faith-based devotional time some students hold weekly before classes start.

As a faculty member, Walters can't lead the devotions, which are done by students, but he is on hand to unlock the classroom and monitor the students, he said.

Walters said these extracurricular devotions don't have to be Christian-based.

"I don't think that because you use a different holy writ, you aren't free to read from that. Your beliefs are yours but with the notion of democracy, you have your beliefs and I will defend that right," he said.

Outside of school, Walters, 47, is still running as member of the male chorus at his church, Culvert Branch Baptist. He is also a deacon and the church's Sunday school superintendent overseeing Bible classes. Walters also competes in U.S. Tennis Association tournaments.

He also manages to sandwich in family time with his wife of 21 years, Alease and daughter Candace, a USC-Aiken junior, and Christian, a Williston-Elko High sophomore.

This year, Walters is also the chairman of the Williston Citizen of the Year committee, which is charged with selecting the 2010 recipient of the honor.

Walters was named the 2008 Citizen of the Year for his community involvement and work with youth.

As part of the recognition, the honorees serve on the committee to select their successors.

"They are schooling me on how that goes," he said of the committee and its work.

However, Walters is pushing for the selection process to be formalized more with a points system for the nominees, he said.

Walters said his parents instilled in him his sense of community activism.

Growing up in Batesberg-Leesville, Walters had a stay-at-home mother while his father established himself as the director of his own funeral home. It was a profession his father wanted him to follow, he said.

However, Walters developed a love of mathematics. Originally, Walters wanted to be a chemical engineer, but S.C. State University had no major for that. Forays into electromechanical and computer science majors left him disenchanted, he said.

While at SCSU, Walters was a student tutor for the football team, which sparked his interest in teaching, he said.

"I'm a little guy telling a 300-pound guy what to do and he did it. That was my greatest joy," Walters said.

Besides unraveling the mystery of polynomial equations, Walters encourages his students to be involved in their community.
Doing so will build character, Walters said.

"You want to be in public because you know you are being watched," he said. "That's why you want to be out in public. Character is who you are wherever you are."

Being active in the community for Walters is twofold. One, it lets other people see that teachers have lives outside of the classroom, he said.

The other reason is interaction, he said.

"The thing I get out of being so active is I see the parents in the neighborhood," Walters said.

From that, he can understand a particular student's background and maybe reach him or her better, he said.

Walters had been teaching at Williston-Elko High since 1987. He was hired on Martin Luther King Day.

That's why Martin Luther King Day is special to me," he said. "I've enjoyed it -- it's always been a challenge. It's what I'm called to do."