Peggy Joynson has clocked an average of 150 hours a year as a volunteer at the R.H. Johnson Library in Sun City West.

This doesn't even include the 55-year-old and her husband's work Saturdays cleaning up the area with the Sun City West PRIDES.

Bill Chesney, 61, recently reached 100 hours of service at Sun Health Boswell Memorial Hospital in Sun City for his first year as a volunteer.

Baby Boomers are the majority of the Arizona volunteers between the ages of 55 and 64 who serve a median of at least 96 hours of volunteer service each year, the second highest in the country for that age group, according to a Volunteering in America report released through the Corporation for National and Community Service.

Joynson said she's not surprised at the rate and expects for it to grow even more in the next few years.

"It's a great start but that's going to change soon because many people our age are in transition from jobs to retirement, so we'll have more time," she said. "I remember a time when Baby Boomers did not volunteer as much."

Volunteering in America released detailed information on volunteer trends and demographics from all 50 states and 163 U.S. cities over a three-year period.

Arizona's average volunteer rate of 23.9 percent ranked 45th among the 50 states, while Tucson was the No. 1 metropolitan city in the state.

The state's Baby Boomers perform almost 100 hours of service, the second highest in that bracket in the nation.

Carol Foutts, director of R.H. Johnson Library, said those numbers are just the tip of the iceberg for Baby Boomers.

In the last month, Foutts said she's trained three Boomers as volunteers for the library. They have learned several jobs from sorting books to the front desk.

"Many of Baby Boomers haven't had too much time because they've haven't fully retired just yet but that's beginning to be a different story," Foutts said.

Two years ago, Joynson and her husband retired from their jobs in Hawaii and moved to Sun City West to be near her father-in-law, who lives in Sun City.

The couple were looking to get more involved into the community after working 50 hours each a week with their professional careers.

"We knew when we retired we would have more time for this, so it was inevitable," she said.

The Joynsons can be found every week at the library, either assisting library patrons or behind the scenes. They also don orange vests and help pick litter as well as trim landscape in Sun City West as members of the PRIDES.

Bill Chesney, a retired police officer from Illinois and Corte Bella resident, has logged 100 hours of service at Boswell since he's volunteered at the front desk of the lobby a little more than a year ago.

"I enjoy it so much," he said. "When people walk into the hospital, I'm the second person they see next to the greeter."

Chesney said he would like to do more volunteer hours, but his time is limited to the care for his in-laws who live in the area.

"The Baby Boomer generation is the sandwich generation because we have to juggle so much between some of us still working and others caring for loved ones," he said. "The work at Boswell gives me a nice to have in between it all."

Kay Scherting, director of volunteer services for Sun Health, said they received a grant to help with retention of Baby Boomers for volunteer work.

"There are least 640 volunteers with the organization who have been with us for 10 years or more, so we're going to be looking more to the younger," Scherting said. "Many Baby Boomers are still working or went back because of the economy."

Faye Lee, a 55-year-old Sun City Grand resident, serves as a "roving ambassador" at Sun Health Del E. Webb Hospital.

Lee walks around to the various departments in the hospital and asks if they need assistance. She also fills in for fellow volunteers.

The retired Toyota executive has volunteered at Del Webb for four months and already has logged 130 hours of service.

"It's always been a personal credo of mine to work in the community," she said. "Baby Boomers are a different generation of volunteers and we're defining what it means to work in the community and do volunteer work."

Mitchell Vantrease may be reached at 623-876-2526 or e-mail mvantrease@yourwestvalley.com.