SUNSET — Some teens say they couldn't care less about anything. But one person has shown he cares about them.

Once kids talk with Lloyd Kjar (pronounced "Care"), the counselor at Sunset Junior High School, they see a whole new world.

"Before, it was black. Now, it's a rainbow," said Jennifer Tran, 16, who will be a junior this fall at Northridge High School in Layton.

Taped to the outside window of Kjar's office is a Crayon-colored picture a student created of a blue Care Bear. And that's what the students call Kjar: "Mr. Care Bear."

They also say he is a bit of a rat fink. He collects memorabilia from the old cartoon character "Rat Fink," created by his sister-in-law's husband, the late Ed Roth of Manti.

After 41 years, Kjar is retiring.

Even though he will miss the students, Kjar, 66, plans to spend his time helping his neighbors and keeping busy as a bishop. And he is quite strict and serious in that leadership role, say his three grown sons. They attended a celebration for Kjar at the school a few weeks ago.

"He'll probably spend a lot of time helping people out. He likes to help people. It's just the way he's always been," said Gary Kjar, 41, of Clearfield.

Kjar's neighbor, Juanita Hooper, 73, said he tilled and planted her garden. He even brought her some fertilizer from his turkey-raising relatives in Manti. "He's just a wonderful, kind-hearted person and willing to help us with whatever," she said.

At Kjar's goodbye party, his co-workers unveiled freshly painted words above the doors of his department: "The Lloyd H. Kjar Counseling Center."

Kjar says it's too much. "Overkill," he says.

His colleagues disagree. "You've got to be a special person to do that job — deal with all the ups and downs of the junior high-age student," said Robert Hillier, a science teacher at Sunset, who also has a counseling degree.

To make ends meet while in the education field, Kjar spent 32 years working at the Wonder Bread Hostess bakery in Ogden. He generally worked 20 hours a week, doing cleanup after school and at 5 a.m. on Saturdays.

"I used to call him 'Doughboy,' " laughed Sunset Junior High assistant principal Robert Ito.

Many other area educators worked at the plant with Kjar. "It was like a club. We talked about our jobs," he said. "But I can't bear to eat a Twinkie now."

Kjar started out as an English teacher and then earned his master's degree in secondary education with a counseling endorsement from the University of Utah.

"I have always had in my mind that I want to help kids," he said.

Some of the teens he has counseled simply don't have a lot of family support.