BLOOMFIELD — While retirement for most of us means time to relax, take it easy and perhaps travel or pursue a hobby, for Beverly Woolard retirement is merely another word for career change.

With scarcely time for a deep breath, Woolard moved from teacher to entrepreneur. She retired in 1988 after teaching 36 years in Davis County, the last 25 years teaching sixth grade reading. She was 18 and had already finished two years of college when she landed her first job at a one room country school in Missouri which she taught for one year. The day after her last day of school she started working at Memory Lane Antique Mall-Bass-N-Men tackle shop the business she and her husband, Jack, had just started.

“I had always appreciated summers, but I didn’t appreciate summer nearly enough until after I retired from teaching,” Woolard laughed. “We were open every day, closing only three days a year.” The business had grown to include 60 dealers when the store was sold in 1996.

With time on her hands after the sale, Woolard dived into volunteerism and pursuit of new hobbies with the same energy and gusto she had applied to previous careers. She became active with the Welcome Center.

Actually, “I messed around until it has turned into almost a full time volunteer job,” she admitted. She is very proud of the Davis County Welcome Center, located on Highway 63 on the north side of Bloomfield. There is no paid help, and she praised the many volunteers who assist in the operation of the center. “I have lots of good help.”

As president of Davis County Tourism Corp. which includes the Welcome Center, Woolard has discovered that her job description covers whatever needs to be done from tending the summer flowers, to orienting new volunteers, to writing monthly checks for the crafters who supply merchandise to the souvenir shop, to numerous meetings, to cleaning up an occasional mess.

On a recent day, she attended three tourism meetings, each with a separate committee assigned to a different responsibility or focus of the tourism group. She also is active with the Tourism Development and Promotion Committee, within the Davis County Tourism Corp.

Woolard is active on the Bloomfield Main Street Image Committee. An on-going project is purchase of new Christmas decorations for the square. “Lots of other volunteer groups help, especially Davis County Hospital employees,” she said. The committee plans activities in cooperation with other groups, such as the Fourth of July celebration, Meet the Mustangs for athletes and band, the fall festival, trick or treat night, Molly the Trolley at Christmas time — “anything to bring people to Bloomfield,” Woolard said.

Her other activities include: Chariton Valley Planning and Development board for Historic Hills Region and Delta Kappa Gamma. She is proud of T.T.T. charity work which includes outfitting and sending four underprivileged girls to camp each year and of the group’s annual quilt show.

“I wanted to do two things when I retired: Learn to oil paint and to quilt,” said Woolard.

She has accomplished both beautifully, with many exquisite examples decorating her home.

“I love to quilt,” she said, especially wall hangings because “I like to quilt on the sewing machine, but mine can’t handle full sized quilts.” She has won many blue and purple ribbons at the county fair.

Her interest in quilting led to active membership in Threads of Friendship Quilt Guild. The group makes and donates lots of quilts to needy people and fire victims, she said, and “we enjoy being together.”