Janelle Matzdorf posted a For Sale sign outside her Meiners Oaks house and started cleaning out her closets.

In a matter of months, she will leave the neighborhood she's called home for nearly two decades and start living on a small stipend in an Eastern European country like Albania or Georgia.

"I thought the Peace Corps was a dream from the past because I got married and made babies, and then I couldn't do that sort of thing," said Matzdorf, 59.

Then several months ago, "I read something or heard something on TV that the Peace Corps was interested in mature' people."

She didn't hesitate to sign herself up and has become one of a much sought after group of volunteers.

The U.S. Peace Corps always has accepted anyone over 18 who meets qualifications. But the average age of volunteers is 27, and only 5 percent sign up when they're 50 or older.

"We're trying to get it up to 10 percent," said Press Director Amanda Beck. To help, Peace Corps officials have launched a program called the 50-plus initiative.

Efforts, championed by Director Ronald Tschetter, include targeting retirement-age men and women for recruitment, streamlining the medical screening and providing more support for 50-plus volunteers in the field.

In his 20s, Tschetter, who took over as director last year, and his wife served as volunteers in India from 1966 to 1968. They worked alongside several older volunteers, including Lillian Carter, former President Carter's mother.

"While there are challenges involved in increasing our number of 50-plus volunteers, the opportunities outweigh these challenges," Tschetter has said. "As the 50-plus population continues to increase here in the U.S., we have to do this."

Marriage, divorce, school

Matzdorf was in her teens when she first considered a stint in the Peace Corps, but life took a lot of turns before she ever filled out an application.

Six years after dropping out of college and getting married, Matzdorf got divorced. Raising two young children, she went back to school, where she received a bachelor's degree from CSU Long Beach.

A string of jobs, including employment counselor, income tax auditor and a teacher on a Navajo Reservation, led her to her second husband, Tony Matzdorf, whom she met in June 1979. Four months later, they married.

While the Peace Corps still seemed out of reach, Janelle Matzdorf said, she never lost her drive to help people.

"I'm a child of the '60s when the Peace Corps was created," she said. "I was brought up with this idea that our reason to be on Earth is to make it a better place."

You get to see miracles'

After taking early retirement from AT&T Communications in 1997, Matzdorf went back to teaching. This time, she had added a master's degree in special education to her credentials.

As a teacher of severely disabled children, Matzdorf said, she faced huge challenges and got even bigger rewards. "You get to see miracles every single day," she said.

A few days into the 2006-07 school year, she took a leave of absence from teaching in the Ojai Unified School District to help her husband, who had been diagnosed with cancer.

Tony Matzdorf died in December.

Janelle Matzdorf got ready to go back to work for Ojai Unified a few months later, the Peace Corps' call for mature volunteers in the back of her head.

A few days before she returned, however, she received notice that her contract was not going to be extended for the 2007-08 school year.

For Matzdorf, her next step was clear. She logged onto her computer and filled out an application with the Peace Corps.

"I wasn't surprised," said Janeen Renteria, Matzdorf's sister. "She has always felt a calling to help others."

Practice patience

Throughout the application process, the Peace Corps suggests applicants practice some of the traits they will need during their two-year placement: patience and flexibility.

While that likely will always be true, Beck said, officials hope the 50-plus initiative makes the application process more user-friendly for more mature volunteers.

While Matzdorf finished out the school year, she also completed interviews and screenings that are part of the months-long application process. She has received a nomination to train special education teachers in Eastern Europe, as well as legal and dental clearances.

But she doesn't expect to leave until February. In the meantime, she is waiting for a medical clearance and an official invitation.

The medical screening process is the same regardless of an applicant's age, according to the Peace Corps. However, Beck said, "We're trying to streamline the medical process."

For a 25-year-old applying to the Peace Corps, finding medical records of a broken leg five years earlier might not be too difficult.

But if the applicant is 65, health problems 25 years earlier might be more of a challenge to document.

Efforts to recruit more 50-plus volunteers don't stop at reviewing the medical screening process.

Peace Corps officials surveyed all 382 current volunteers ages 50 and older earlier this year. They are reviewing suggestions that came out of the questionnaire, as well as developing strategies to improve training and in-country support.

It's too soon to know if the 50-plus initiative is working, but, Beck said, interest from retirement-age men and women seems to be climbing.

She only has one concern

Matzdorf said she's ready for what she expects to be a life-changing experience.

Safety is her only concern, but she's confident the Peace Corps wouldn't place her anywhere dangerous.

After receiving her invitation, Matzdorf will spend 27 months in her country of placement, including 90 days of living with a host family, learning the language and training with other Peace Corps volunteers.

Her focus right now is selling her house — something that needs to happen before she leaves.

A year ago, she likely wouldn't have predicted what has happened over the past several months. But, Matzdorf said, everything just sort of happened this way. "I think the timing speaks for itself," she said. "It's going to work out because this is what I'm supposed to do."

She thinks the experience she has now in the Peace Corps will be different than one she would have had in her 20s.

Back then, Matzdorf said, "I thought I could change the world in a great, spectacular way."

Forty year later, she thinks on a smaller scale, she added, and plans to make a difference one person at a time.