After returning from service with the U.S. Army in Vietnam, Lynn Stearns settled in the Cazenovia area where he had been born and raised. He worked as an accountant at a local CPA firm for 38 years, helping small-business clients navigate their tax obligations and manage their finances, when he discovered an opportunity to volunteer […]
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After returning from service with the U.S. Army in Vietnam, Lynn Stearns settled in the Cazenovia area where he had been born and raised. He worked as an accountant at a local CPA firm for 38 years, helping small-business clients navigate their tax obligations and manage their finances, when he discovered an opportunity to volunteer as a mentor for small businesses.
Besides their selfless service to our nation’s military, veterans share a love of country, tradition, and drive to succeed. These honorable characteristics alone make veterans a valuable asset to their communities. One of the most common motivations that veterans cite is to be part of a greater purpose, an intrinsic desire to serve others first. The desire to give to better our country paired with leadership qualities that are honed while serving in uniform creates veterans who are well-suited to continue serving their communities long after their military careers have ended.
For Stearns, his path to giving back to his community started when he began volunteering at the Syracuse SCORE Chapter as a mentor in 2010. Three years later, he became the vice-chair of the chapter, and then served as the chairman for a two-year term. Today, he continues to manage the business workshop programs for the chapter, teach several of the accounting workshops, and counsel individual clients.
With workshops and individual counseling from Lynn Stearns and other SCORE counselors, entrepreneur Eileen Collins was able to take her virtual administrative assistant company to a full-service business in 2013. Collins is just one of Stearns’s many success stories that caused the 2017 national SCORE client engagement survey to recognize Stearns as the top counselor in the Syracuse SCORE Chapter. With more than 240 businesses started and jobs created during his eight years of mentorship, his level of counselor achievement has earned recognition as a community leader. Stearns looks forward to continuing to serve small-business owners as they start, grow and succeed.
If you are looking for a way to continue to serve your community after your military service, I strongly encourage you to consider volunteering for a SCORE Chapter near you. Funded in part by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), SCORE has chapters in Auburn, Binghamton, Syracuse, and Utica. It’s your opportunity to share your knowledge and life experiences as a mentor with small-business owners. Whether you are sharing your expertise through business counseling or as a class instructor, there is no shortage of entrepreneurs who could benefit. For additional information on how you can give back as a part of SCORE’s network of 10,000 volunteer business experts, please visit www.score.org, click on Volunteer, complete the volunteer application and submit.
Bernard J. Paprocki is district director for the SBA’s Syracuse district office. He is responsible for the delivery of SBA’s financial programs and business-development services for a 34-county region in upstate New York.