Houston man volunteers at the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies
George Wiggins of Houston is shown in the main office of the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies in Cecil Township.
Veteran George Wiggins at the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies in Cecil Township, where he works as a volunteer two days a week.
Two days a week, George Wiggins volunteers at National Cemetery of the Alleghenies, saluting every time he drives by the large U.S. flag that stands on the cemetery grounds.
Wiggins, 70, of Houston, began working at the cemetery in 2010, a month after he retired from his job as a customer service representative for Fed Ex.
A U.S. Air Force veteran, Wiggins said he wanted to “give back in some way.”
Volunteering at the final resting place for his fellow veterans seemed an appropriate way to honor them and help their families.
“I felt compelled. I wanted to help out. I’m a talker – I could talk all day long – and I thought I had something to offer,” said Wiggins. “I enjoy it. I feel like I’m giving back a little to everybody.”
His people skills are a welcome addition to the cemetery’s information office, where Wiggins talks with visitors about eligibility for burial in the cemetery, fields phone calls and assists with administrative operations including scheduling burials.
At times, when a distraught visitor drops by the information office after visiting the gravesite of a loved one, he simply listens.
“Someone will stop in and say, ‘I just saw Mom,’ and they want to talk about it,” said Wiggins. “They just need a shoulder.”
Wiggins is one of about 40 volunteers at the 292-acre national cemetery, which averages more than 130 burials each month.
“George is one of our most reliable volunteers at the cemetery. He’s great. Our volunteers are core to us completing our mission at the cemetery, which is to honor our veterans with a lasting memorial,” said Jon Meier, program coordinator at the cemetery. “We couldn’t do it nearly as well without George and our volunteers.”
Since he began volunteering, Wiggins has given about 1,600 hours of his time.
He’s happy to recognize other volunteers, including people and organizations who participate in the annual Memorial Day and Veterans Day ceremonies and Wreaths Across America.
Wiggins said he’s grown fond of the Canon-McMillan High School band members who volunteer to play annually at the Memorial Day ceremony held the Sunday before the holiday.
“There may only be 30 or 40 of them, but they’re giving up their Sunday to be here and I always let their band director know the veterans out there know they’ve come out on their own,” said Wiggins. “It means a lot.”
There are a lot of veterans and family members who don’t realize veterans are eligible to be interred at a national cemetery free of charge, Wiggins said.
A satisfying part of his volunteer job, he said, is telling a husband or a wife who has little money that their loved one’s burial will be covered because he or she was a veteran who served their country.
Wiggins has donated the casket flags of his late father and his uncle (who are not buried in the cemetery) to the cemetery’s Avenue of the Flags, where they are flown on Memorial Day and Veterans Day.
Wiggins and his wife, Evelyn, are the parents of two grown children.
Wiggins is also an avid golfer (he hit a hole in one on a Park City, Utah golf course) and an usher at Central Assembly of God Church in Houston.
When Wiggins is in the cemetery office, he wears a lanyard with pins he has received for his service hours. He pulled out a program from a recent banquet held to honor volunteers and flipped through the pages, pointing out volunteers with as many as 20,000 hours.
“I have a long way to go,” he said. “But I like being here, I like the people who work here. This is an impressive place, a beautiful place. When you volunteer to join the Air Force at 18, you don’t think about it as love of country, but it turns out that’s what it was about.”