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As a guest visiting a retirement community for the first time, you would no doubt get the wrong idea about the people who live there. You would visit a clubhouse and see rooms full of people playing cards and mahjong, people with sun hats bobbing around a swimming pool, and people playing golf all day. If you don't live there, you might think that a retirement community is a kind of day camp for seniors. If you made that assumption, you would be wrong.

Of course, some of the senior citizens do nothing but play cards, mahjong, and golf. Those activities are easily visible. It's what you don't see that's a surprise. Many other things are happening every day. You won't know about them unless you ask the active seniors "What do you do all day now that you are retired?" The answers will surprise you.

Some seniors actually choose to work again, whether full- or part-time or as volunteers. They use skills they had or develop new ones. They enjoy the work and/or need the money. Many seniors are simply trying to make a difference because they care about others.

A retired pediatrician volunteers at a free clinic for migrant workers. He also runs a blood bank for his own community. Former teachers volunteer in the schools teaching reading to immigrant children. Members of my branch of National League of American Pen Women taught writing skills to girls in prison. They visited disadvantaged schools to read and illustrate original stories with the children. They led writing groups at an assisted living facility.

One woman volunteered to coordinate volunteer services at a home for the aged. She was so good at this that she was offered a paid position running the program. A man with a beautiful speaking voice records books for the blind.

A man I know is in love with trains. In his working life, he was a furniture salesman. He turned the garage of his home into a wonderland of toy trains complete with bridges, towns, whistles, and lights that he shows to all the children who visit the area. That wasn't enough for him, however. He also got a paying job as a stationmaster in the local railroad station and is happier than ever in his life.

A woman accountant works for people having trouble managing their finances. She gets paid for establishing budgets, paying bills, and doing taxes for those who can no longer do it for themselves.

People work as drivers for those unable to drive to airports, doctors, and banks. They work as house sitters for absent residents.

I know the grandma who manages the greeting card department of a nearby pharmacy. Another grandma is the cashier there. I've seen neighbors doing food demonstrations at Costco and supermarkets.

"Why do you stand on your feet all day doing this?" I asked them. The answer is always the same. "It's fun and I can use the extra cash."

Whenever I visit the local hospital, I spot familiar faces volunteering there as receptionists at the visitors' desk or pushing patients in wheelchairs.

Community service work occupies a ton of people in these communities. They raise huge amounts of money for Hadassah, cancer research, and disaster relief for victims of floods and earthquakes. They knit hats and afghans for hospital patients. They deliver Meals on Wheels.

Lots of people use this time of life to do what financial considerations did not allow them to do when they were younger. They paint, write, act, dance, and sing. My husband became an amateur painter. When he was offered several hundred dollars by a gallery owner for one of his early works, he was delighted. (I wouldn't let him sell it -- I wanted to hang it in our house!)

We have a neighbor who has turned his garage into a workshop. He makes stage sets for local theater productions. A retired dentist uses his garage to make lovely stained glass panels that he sells for hundreds of dollars. An art teacher has organized a community Artist in Residence group with a studio, classes, and its own art gallery. A theater arts group puts on major productions each year, selling over 1,000 tickets each time. The thespians are amateurs who join with theater veterans in these shows.

At my temple, a dedicated group of retired lawyers, accountants, engineers, and former owners of large businesses have banded together to tackle a big problem: Save our temple! Over the 14 years that I have been a member of this temple, the membership has gone from 2,400 to 1,200. In spite of efforts to cut expenses and increase membership, the temple will be forced to close its doors within two to three years unless a merger with another temple can be accomplished.

The professional people who have signed on as volunteers to shepherd the temple through a merger will be contributing many hours of their personal time to do this work for our Jewish community.

Last, but not least among us, are the writers. Many have dabbled all their lives but could not give the time to writing seriously in their younger years. More writers' groups flourish here than in any place I have ever lived. The successes have been phenomenal -- novels, plays, poetry, newspaper and magazine articles, as well as children's books -- sold and professionally published by seniors.

Next time you visit a senior community, don't assume that it's a community at rest. It's alive and kicking!

Toby Rosenstrauch, an award-winning columnist, lives in Boynton Beach, Fla.