Betty Patton looks on as AARP tax preparation volunteer Dward Moore prepares her 2016 tax returns Tuesday at the Central United Methodist Church. The service provides free tax assistance by appointment weekdays for local taxpayers.

With her background, Pat Hooge laughs at the suggestion that her AARP volunteer work is stressful.

For the past six years, Hooge has been the Lawrence volunteer coordinator for the AARP’s annual tax preparation site. That requires her to spend around four hours each weekday from Feb. 1 to the April tax filing deadline in the basement of Central United Methodist Church, 1501 Massachusetts St., helping the volunteers with questions during computer work sessions, filling in when needed and handling paperwork.

The volunteers at the site process the state and federal taxes of of about 36 people a day. It’s a big responsibility, but Hooge, who is retired, said her former career prepared her for handling stress.

“I was an air traffic controller,” she said. “This is more relaxing.”

The days are challenging enough to keep her “little gray cells engaged,” which Hooge considers a good thing.

“When I get home, I feel like I need physical activity,” she said. “I’ve given myself a mental workout. Then, I need to do something for my body.”

The biggest perk, though, is providing much-needed help, Hooge said.

“It’s an opportunity to give back,” she said. “Everybody has to do taxes. Many of the people we see here did their own taxes until they had to use computers or came to the point they realized they needed someone else to do them.”

Sarah Merriman, AARP district coordinator for Douglas, Franklin and Jefferson counties, said seniors represent the majority of those the local AARP tax service helps, but it is available to those of all ages and incomes.

The AARP volunteers can do some itemized returns and those for small businesses, but not complex returns such as those of farmers or landlords, Merriman said. The service also completes forms for the state’s homestead property tax refund, she said.?

“If I’m allowed to train it, we can do it,” she said, explaining AARP tax volunteers are required to attend annual AARP tax preparation classes that she teaches each January at the University of Kansas School of Business. “The IRS sets limits on what we can do.”

A few of the people served from the AARP site have received letters from the IRS, but no one has ever been audited during her 10 years, Merriman said. ?”Those taxpayers aren’t really our clientele,” she said.

Most of the site’s processed returns are like that of retired Lawrence chemical plant worker George Kapfer, who brought his 1040 forms to the site Tuesday to be completed.

“It’s simpler to have someone else do them,” he said, as he prepared to leave the church Tuesday. “I need to have my wife, Sue, sign them and return them tomorrow to be E-filed.”

The AARP has used electronic filing since she started in her volunteer position 10 years ago, said Merriman, a retired music teacher. ?”That’s kind of the case here,” she said of her background. “We have one CPA out of 70 volunteers. They are just extremely hard-working and dedicated people. We should assist about 2,000 people before the season is over.”

The AARP service will be available through the tax filing deadline of April 18, Merriman said. The traditional April 15 falls on a Saturday, and Monday, April 17, is the holiday observance of Emancipation Day in Washington, D.C.

“It seems like the deadline is never on the 15th anymore,” she said.