Congratulation Barry Groves, selected as Volunteer of the Quarter - Rural routes for the first quarter, fiscal year 2026-27. Barry began volunteering with Meals on Wheels Salinas Valley in May 2012 and has been a volunteer driver in South County for over 14 years. At the time he began with MOWSV, he felt that he was the “new kid in town” and saw volunteering as a way to meet influential local people, learn his way around and become more connected to his new community.

His favorite part of volunteering is meeting interesting characters along his route. Barry delivers meals to MOWSV clients in Soledad. He shared that not every client wants a long conversation, but Barry usually spends at least 15 to 30 minutes each week chatting with one or two people. Those conversations matter to him. “You can learn things about your town from the right clients,” he said. For Barry, delivering meals is also an opportunity to listen, connect and discover more about the community he now calls home.

Barry’s working life has followed anything but a traditional path. Asked about his career, he jokes, “Oh lordy—I have literally forgotten many of my jobs.” Although he never earned a degree, he built a remarkably varied work history by following his interests and teaching himself new skills along the way.

Among his favorite experiences were two separate two-year stints in information technology, opportunities made possible because he was a self-taught “computer geek.” He also held a CDL-A truck driver’s license for 10 years. “Yes, I really was a semi-truck driver,” he said. Barry spent another 15 years in the carpet cleaning industry, sometimes as the company owner, in three Ohio cities. Earlier in life, he worked part-time as a radio newscaster and full-time as a DJ. He also managed a game room and repaired pinball machines. 

Barry’s story began in Naperville, Illinois, which was part affluent Chicago suburb and part farm town during his childhood. The population crossed 10,000 during his junior year in high school. Since then, Naperville has grown tremendously, at one point becoming the third-largest city in Illinois and gaining recognition across the country.

While Barry was serving in the Army, stationed in Germany, his father changed jobs and moved the family, including Barry’s three younger siblings, to the Cleveland area. The move inspired a long-running family joke: everyone had tried to run and hide from him, but he had unfortunately tracked them down. Barry remained an Ohioan for the next 45 years, with short stints in Cleveland, Columbus and most years in Toledo.

In 2011, Barry finally made the move to California.

Family has always been central to Barry’s life. He has four children. Tracy and Carter are from his first marriage to Hildi. After they separated in Columbus around 1976, Barry met his second wife, Patricia, and they had two daughters, Katy and Kelly. They later separated while living in Toledo. By the time Barry met Ileen in Toledo, he said he had grown up and “finally got it right.” Ileen brought four children of her own, whose birth dates and ages fit neatly among those of Barry’s children.

Barry and Ileen have always felt blessed by how well all their children turned out. He describes them as self-confident, well-balanced and independent, with careers that have enabled them to provide well for themselves.

Meals on Wheels is not Barry’s only connection to the community. He participated in the Soledad Chamber of Commerce and eventually served as its treasurer for several years, ending in 2016. His other major long-term volunteer role has been with Loaves, Fishes and Computers, where he has also served for about 13 years. When he is healthy and not grieving (his wife Ileen passed away in 2024), Barry volunteers at least one five- to six-hour day each week, and sometimes two days when needed. 

Outside of volunteering, Barry spends a great deal of time cleaning out and paring down a four-bedroom house as he prepares it for sale. He also manages three “permanently hungry, attention-seeking cats.” He is still deciding whether to make one more attempt to get his street bike running; it has not run since the move to California, which he readily admits is his own fault. Through all these experiences, Barry continues to value the people, conversations and community connections that volunteering has brought into his life.