Ten years ago, when Judy Cockerton, then 48, read a news item about a child who had been kidnapped from his crib in a foster home, she gathered her family and said, “What can we do to help foster children?” It was the turning point for Cockerton, who decided at that moment to take on the challenge of helping foster children. Until that time, she had been focused on running her two award-winning toy stores in the Boston area.

Now Cockerton is the founder and director of a nonprofit dedicated to improving conditions for children in the foster care system. Along the way, she spearheaded construction of an intergenerational community to create a supportive environment for foster children in Massachusetts.

On the day Gisselle Acevedo quit her job as a newspaper executive, she pinned a note on her desk listing her requirements for her next job: “Change the world. Work on Skid Row. Work with children.”

When she learned she had been hired as president and CEO of Para Los Niños (For the Children), a Los Angeles nonprofit serving low-income student, she fell to her knees in gratitude. “Their mission to serve the neediest children of Los Angeles exactly matched my own,” she says.

During her first carefree months of retirement at the age of 53, Elaine Welch, a registered nurse, loved the freedom to meet a friend for lunch. She had the cleanest closets in California. She even tried golf. “I had never been so busy doing so little,” she said.

Depressed and seeking purpose in her life, she decided to return to work. Almost 10 years later, she manages programs that serve seniors in her own and surrounding communities. “And I want to help improve senior services throughout the country,” Welch said.