Danny Carothers, a figure in the community who worked with a slew of organizations and served as the head of The Foundry Christian Community Center in Bowling Green, passed away at age 63 on Tuesday.

Lawrence White, a longtime friend of Carothers’ who worked with him on the West Side Camp project, spoke on Carothers’ legacy with the Daily News.

“Danny was one of those seven-days-a-week guys,” White said. “He was the type of guy that color didn’t mean anything to him, and then age didn’t.”

Carothers’ work in the community touched many different organizations, from the Housing Authority of Bowling Green’s Megan’s Mobile Grocery Store to the Bowling Green Independent School District to the West Side Camp, which Carothers worked on with White and White’s brother, the Rev. Ron Whitlock, Sr.

White said Carothers often coached different teams in the community, describing this work as giving Carothers a “lineage.”

“Some kids that graduated 15, 20 years ago can compliment Danny Carothers (for) helping them get through school sports activities,” White said. “He let them all know that they were better than what they thought they were.”

Whitlock described Carothers as “instrumental” in getting kids to attend the camp. He said Carothers would help out with different activities at the camp, including trips to see historical sites, camp-outs and making sure the kids were “well taken care of.”

“Some people, as Christians, think the job is just to go to heaven, but Danny knew that we should try to make heaven here on earth, and that’s what he did,” Whitlock said. “He changed a lot of children’s lives.”

Carothers was a 1979 graduate of Bowling Green High School. Through his work with the community, he helped found Boys To Men at Parker-Bennett-Curry Elementary School and was on staff with the basketball and football teams at Bowling Green Junior High School.

Gary Fields, superintendent of the Bowling Green Independent School District, described Carothers as “always involved” in the district.

“When a kid was having trouble in school, at home, a lot of times they would reach out to Danny,” Fields said. “He was the guy that could go and talk to a kid and tell them some hard truths if they weren’t doing what they were supposed to do, but also lifting them up when they needed to be lifted up.”

Carothers and Fields came to know each other through the years they both spent in the school district. Fields said what made him unique was there was “not one label” for him.

“I think to different people you ask, he will mean something different,” Fields said. “That’s a sign of somebody who really, really made an impact.”

An article on The Foundry’s website details some of the work Carothers did for the organization, including supervising the organization’s community garden, conducting security work and supervising the janitorial program.

Carothers summed up in the article the reason for his continued service.

“We all have struggles,” he stated. “If I can bring somebody joy among their struggles, that helps two people — me and them.”