Community Champion: Ed Wilson
It’s time to recognize a Community Champion, an honor given to people making a positive impact in the community.
It’s in partnership with Leaders Credit Union.
“Everything I’m doing today, I didn’t go looking for. It came looking for me,” said Ed Wilson, who has been serving others his entire life.
It started back during his time in the military.
“Once you are in that atmosphere, that comradeship, you don’t retire and sit down. You just don’t. I mean you just don’t stop,” Wilson said.
In addition to serving his country, Wilson was also a state trooper and the deputy sheriff of Madison County.
And he has now been a driving instructor for more than a decade, helping to keep travelers safe while behind the wheel.
“I’ll never know whether I saved someone’s life or not. Or whether or not they listened to Ed Wilson say, ‘Wait that one more second before you move that car forward.’ It may save a life. I don’t know what’s going on after they leave my class,” Wilson said.
Wilson also volunteers at the Kirkland Cancer Center, advocating for patients and helping the center in anyway he can.
“I don’t sit down for four hours. Twice a week, I work. Right now I’m doing every Monday and then Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. Whatever day I want to go in,” he said.
He says after seven years, he doesn’t plan on going anywhere.
“Never leave. If they told me today that I had to go over to the hospital to be a volunteer, to continue being a volunteer, I would come home. I’m attached,” Wilson said.
Wilson says the workers at the cancer center have become a family, prioritizing the patients who come in and out of their doors.
“There’s not one of those girls on that front desk and other ones back in administration, nobody sees. They’ve been on their knees in the floor praying for those patients,” Wilson said.
Wilson says a life of hard work pays off and people around you will recognize that.
“If you have put time in and retired, they know you’ve lived up to your responsibilities,” Wilson said.
If you know someone doing good in their community, nominate them here.
