Barbara M. Traynor

Prior to retirement, Barbara was a single parent of three, working two jobs to pay grocery and college bills, dreaming of the day when she would be master of her own schedule. That dream would become reality via an email stating that a "small college in Alaska supplemented their staff with volunteers offering room and board in exchange for workplace skills". She packed the car and was off and running to adventures and experiences far beyond expectation!

In Second Career Volunteer, a passionate, pennywise approach to a unique lifestyle, Barbara M Traynor describes her volunteer lifestyle in detail, the how-to and what-not-to, positives and negatives, pleasure and treasure. Her first book was restricted to retirement BUT through personal appearances, she discovered that Boomers, pre/post retirees, unemployed college grads AND those displaced by the current financial crisis can also utilize this information. She should know. She has been living this lifestyle for many years! In July, 2005, after working as an Administrative Assistant for over forty-five years, she retired. In August, she drove 8,000 miles to Alaska to volunteer at a small college for a year. Since then, Barbara has been a long-term, long-distance volunteer at a wildlife refuge in Florida, a 200-acre Heifer International learning Center in Arkansas, Menaul School in Albuquerque, NM, and recently, Russell Cave National Monument (a NPS site) in Alabama. In 2012, Barbara will investigate the YMCA of the Rockies. YES! - with free room and board. Along the way she was asked so many questions about what she was doing that she decided to write a book.

In addition to her recently published book, Barbara is a freelance writer of novels, satirical poems, and travel articles. One Op-Ed, Inject Common Sense into Political Campaigns was published during the last three elections. Her novel, Loss of Heart, is in the edit stage, ready for a publisher/agent. When not volunteering throughout the United States, Barbara lives in upstate New York, where she is pleased to present a digital slide show detailing her unique lifestyle at local bookstores and area libraries.