VA Central Western Massachusetts Healthcare System

Laura Balun, the director of VA Voluntary Services, congratulates Ruth Wheeler for 60 years of volunteer service with the Department of Veterans Affairs during a ceremony with friends, family, VA colleagues, fellow volunteers, and representatives from area Veteran service organizations.

LEEDS, Mass., April 30, 2012 -- The second-longest serving volunteer in the VA system and the longest serving VA Volunteer in New England works right here in the VA Northampton Campus Business Office.

Her name is Ruth Wheeler of Northampton.

The 81-year-old volunteer with the American Legion Auxiliary was honored Sunday, April 29, by the VA Central Western Massachusetts Healthcare System for 60 years of service at a recognition ceremony at the Northampton Elks Lodge in Florence.

At the ceremony were friends, family, VA colleagues, fellow volunteers, representatives from area Veteran service organizations, and VA dignitaries, including Laura Balun, the director of VA Voluntary Services for the Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington.

“For over 60 years, Ruth L. Wheeler has been an unbelievably dedicated Volunteer to our VA community in Massachusetts,” said Anne Murray, Volunteer Services Officer for VA CWM HCS.  “We – her VA friends – are humbled every day by her sense of service, her love and affection for the Veterans we serve and are honored to recognize her on this momentous occasion."

In that time, she has accumulated nearly 20,000 volunteer hours, equivalent to 10 years of full-time work.

Wheeler, her VA colleagues say, is an indispensable member of the Business Office staff, building information and benefits packets that go out to Veterans throughout the VA CWM HCS region that spans five counties and services 120,000 Veterans.
 
Every new enrolled Veteran in VA healthcare in central and western Massachusetts receives a package that Wheeler builds and mails to them.  Her VA colleagues estimate Wheeler prepares at least 32,000 mailings a year.

“Ruth is amazing,” said Murray. “She’s here four days a week like clockwork, 8 to 4:30, but she’ll work extra days if we need help with anything. sometimes I have to say to her, ‘You do know you’re a volunteer, right?’”

Born in Ashfield, Mass., Wheeler lived in Shelburne Falls and then later moved to Northampton where she resides today. Her work with the VA started in high school as a way to honor her father, Raymond L. Wheeler, who was in the U.S. Army Cavalry.

“My father was a World War I veteran and my mother worked for the American Legion Auxiliary, so I joined the Auxiliary too,” she said.

Immediately after World War II, when the hospital had 1200 patients in residence, Wheeler said she helped organize about three dances a year for Veterans.

“I just stuck with it after that,” she said. “I volunteered when I could over the years, but I was working then.”

After her employment for 30 years as an office assistant at Berkshire Electric Cable in Leeds, she began to serve as a full-time volunteer when she retired in 1993.

“I started at two days a week, then three, then four, then five,” she said. “I cut back to four again recently.”

Today, she works primarily on Veteran correspondence, sending out health benefits renewals, patient pre-registrations, and other information catalogs.

“I like being involved in something; it keeps me busy,” she said. “Everybody’s friendly, and there’s always something to do. And it makes you feel good, helping out the Veterans.”

She said she’s not much for hobbies or outside interests.

“I used to like to drive. Oh, I drove all over the place, Florida, you name it,” said Wheeler. “But I’m getting too old for that kind of thing now.”

Her VA colleagues shower her with praise. Her supervisor, MaryAnn Lyman, Financial Revenue Manager, has worked with her since she started in the office back in 1993.

“When I grow up, I want to be a Ruthie,” said Lyman. “She’s always positive, never crabby. She mails approximately 200 letters a day for us, files, coordinates the outreach brochures for VA community events…she does it all, any administrative task; she’ll do it. She has a tremendous impact on the department. She’s invaluable.”

Unfazed by the honor of being the longest-serving VA Volunteer in New England and all the attributes, Wheeler shrugs modestly.

“Being a volunteer is important,” Wheeler said. “What more can you say?”