FOR A GOOD CAUSE -- Carol Davis

Mathis Winkler

When Carol Davis retired from her work as a financial planner about

three years ago, she decided to keep herself busy as a volunteer.

She’d already signed on with two animal shelters in the area and done

cancer volunteer work as a cancer survivor.

Helping out at the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum seemed like a nice

addition, and the folks on the ship gladly took her up on her offer.

“I don’t have any boating background,” Davis said during a

conversation in the museum’s gallery, then paused for a minute.

“We do have a canoe on the peninsula,” she said, adding that she and

her husband, Geoff, use it to paddle around the bay. “We do have a boat.

I keep forgetting about it.”

After a few months of filing work in the bookkeeper’s office, “the

education department needed someone to help with children’s tours and

snatched me away,” Davis said.

She enjoyed showing the kids -- many of whom came from inland areas

and had never seen the ocean -- to all things nautical.

But then the museum’s gift shop needed a supervisor, and Davis found

her true calling.

“Once I took on the gift shop, everything fell by the wayside,” she

said.

During the past two years, she’s seen the shop double in size and has

attended numerous gift shows around the area to scout out new products

that fit particular exhibitions. Any proceeds from the store benefit the

museum.

Books, note cards and fridge magnets are big sellers, probably because

many tourists who visit the museum want something that’s easily stored in

a suitcase.

Davis also sells boat models, ranging in price from $2 to $300, adding

that she likes the extensive puzzle collection that’s on display.

But while she clearly enjoys her work in the store, Davis said she’s

looking to return to some of her previous volunteer activities.

But if others at the museum have their say, Davis will have to keep

coming back to the store she helped to build.

“If she goes, I go,” said Sue Caldwell, a fellow volunteer who has

been working with Davis to take over some of her duties. “I have other

commitments and can’t put enough time in to run this entire show.

Davis said she’ll stay on in some capacity, adding that she also plans

to get more involved in the Balboa Performing Arts Theater Foundation.

“I’ve kind of enjoyed” working at the store, she said. Caldwell “will

find that it kind of grows on you.”