Patti Straatsma, once an animal technician, always had an interest in medicine.

Jon Woo, a retired homicide detective, grew up playing mah-jongg.

Mary Habres, a former human resources executive, has a talent for recruiting.

All three are rediscovering themselves and their talents after a first career, something experts are calling the baby boom's "encore performance."

Baby boomers - officially described as people born between 1946 and 1964 - are on the precipice of retirement.

That's why a United Way task force is searching for ways to use the boomer talent pool to avoid a shortage of workers and channel boomers into volunteer or paid public service roles.

Last week, they sought the advice of Marc Freedman, a boomer himself and author of Encore: Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life. Half of people ages 50 to 70 want to help others, according to a study by Freedman's organization, Civic Ventures.

The problem is, Freedman said, the system isn't ready.

"There are enormous incentives not to work," he said. A cap on Social Security benefits is one; another is a lack of jobs with flexible hours.

Freedman's partner, Judy Goggin, said nonprofits aren't ready, either. About seven in 10 people in the survey plan to volunteer, she said, but the same proportion expressed dissatisfaction with the volunteer experience. She said that's because their skills are often not used properly.

Not so for Habres, 56, who donates her time recruiting other boomer volunteers for the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program, an organization that engages people 55 and older in a variety of activities, such as tutoring children or acting as ambassadors at the airport.

Before she and her husband moved to Jacksonville more than a year ago, she oversaw recruiting for the New Jersey Department of the Treasury. It was a hard sell to persuade young college graduates to choose state service over high-paying jobs at corporations. These days, she's selling folks on volunteerism, a similar challenge that she tackles by putting up fliers, chatting people up at parties, telling them about opportunities that can be as time-intensive as they choose.

Like many of her generation, Habres also is considering a second career, looking for the right opportunity for a paying job that incorporates service to others with her recruiting background, perhaps in higher education.

The first wave of baby boomers began collecting Social Security checks this year. But ultimately, researchers say, most will continue working into their 60s and even 70s. A study by the AARP found that nearly four in five baby boomers expect to go back to work after they formally retire.

Woo, for example, volunteered at the Jacksonville Beach Municipal Golf Course, where he is now a part-time employee. Woo, 57, spends about 12 hours a week volunteering. Last week, the self-described "people person" was helping out as a marshal at The Players Championship.

His passion is teaching mah-jongg at a senior center and at the University of North Florida's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.

The traditional Chinese game has caught on among the seniors he teaches.

A lifelong interest in medicine and a life-changing experience led Straatsma, 52, to her work on the cardiopulmonary ward at the Mayo Clinic hospital. The recipient of a double lung transplant three years ago, Straatsma has spent the past two years working - twice a week now - with the nurses, doctors and therapists who helped her to breathe again. She also runs the Jacksonville Heart/Lung Transplant Support Group for pre- and post-transplant patients.

She thinks of it as a way to honor her transplant donor. Plus, when she was a patient, she found herself interested in the science behind her care.

"It's what I feel I've been called to do," she said. "You're at that stage of life where you don't focus on yourself anymore."

deirdre.conner@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4504