Patricia Shifflett always loved crunching numbers.

So when she and her husband, Ernest, retired in 1980 after selling their trucking and container storage company in Dundalk, she decided to find a new outlet for her mathematical mind, she said.

"I couldn't stand just sitting around reading books," said Shifflett, who did the accounting for the company.

"I like books, but they could only go so far."

The outlet she found was volunteering to help elderly and low-income residents in the area with their annual tax returns.

She has been on the job, unpaid, every tax season for the last 17 years at the Arbutus Library and the Lansdowne-Baltimore Highlands and Woodlawn senior centers.

On Nov. 20, that long record of volunteerism was recognized by Baltimore County during its 14th annual Good Neighbor Week ceremony, when Shifflett received one of the county's 11 Volunteer Service Awards.

The awards honored 70 individuals and organizations who "live selflessly" by volunteering in their communities, said Baltimore County Executive Jim Smith in a statement.

Community groups, businesses, nonprofit organizations, faith communities and individuals can be nominated for either a Volunteer Service Award or a Bridge Builder Award.

The Bridge Builder Award recognizes voluntary activities or events that advance harmony and understanding among different races, ethnicities and/or faiths.

According to Gail Ross, manager of the Arbutus Library who nominated Shifflett for the award along with library staff member Erin Oh, Shifflett's devotion to helping people is inspiring.

"She's just been indomitable in making sure that this happens every year," Ross said.

"She wraps everything up just right for each person, so that their return gets sent in as it should be."

Volunteers like Shifflett must pass a test each year in order to volunteer with income tax assistance programs, and aside from passing the test each year herself, Shifflett also teaches courses for those preparing to take the test, she said.

"I don't consider it a chore, I consider it my passion," said the lifelong resident of Morrell Park.

"I love doing it because I think of all the money we save people," she said.

"When you see what some places charge for a more-or-less simple return, I feel seniors could better spend that money on themselves, even if it's just to go out to dinner."

Each year, she organizes a "loyal group" of fellow volunteers -- many of them former accountants or book keepers from other parts of the county -- to come to the area to help residents here.

Her years of experience in the area have made her many local friends, she said.

"Even though you might not see people from one tax time to the next, you just become friends with them," she said.

Ross said Shifflett's reputation is well known among folks in the community, who call the library months ahead of tax season to try to schedule appointments with her.

"People start calling us in the fall saying, 'Please, I want to sign up,' because they want to be with Ms. Pat," Ross said.

Shifflett, 74, is so committed to her returning customers, Ross said, that when her husband died at the end of January, she still showed up a week later to the library to assist them.

"It was good in a way because it kept me busy," said Shifflett, who added that her children -- Lisa Young, of Relay; David Shifflett, of Wynnewood; Robert Walker, of Morrell Park, and Laura Sewell, of Vermont -- were extremely helpful as well.

Last year, Shifflett estimated she and her fellow volunteers filed about 600 returns for people at the library and the two senior centers.

Shifflett said she has even assisted members of three generations of the same family.

Though Ross told Shifflett that the Arbutus Library had nominated her for the award, Shifflett said she went to the ceremony at the Towson Sheraton with no expectation of winning.

"I thought, 'If nothing else, I'm going to get a good lunch out of this,'" she said with a laugh.

When she did win, she said, it "was thrilling, to say the least."

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