Perhaps you’ve seen them clad in their patch covered black theater vests providing a motorcycle escort at a funeral.
Maybe you’ve seen them standing at attention as part of a flag and honor line at an event for veterans or first responders. Or you’ve seen their motorcycles, a few of them three-wheelers, in parades or outside assisted living facilities or nursing homes where they were visiting veterans.
Maybe you have seen a dozen or more of them with a line of tables pushed together, gathered on a Tuesday morning for breakfast at Cedars Family Restaurant on South Campbell Avenue in Springfield.
The men and women are members of the Springfield and Greater Ozarks Area Warriors’ Watch Riders, the local chapter of a national organization. According to the organization’s website, the group is “a nation-wide coalition of groups and individuals dedicated to the support of our nation’s warriors…” By “nation’s warriors,” they mean military veterans and first responders.
The Riders group is unique in that it offers its services at no charge and does no fundraising, although it accepts donations. The mission is simply to honor and support people who have served their country or community.
And then, of course, there’s Dolores. Waitress Dolores Wiggins, 63, of Springfield, had worked at Cedars for 11 and 1/2 years when she decided to retire last April. Members of the Warriors joked with the restaurant’s owner that they were going to find a new place for their weekly breakfast. Dolores agreed to return to work, but only as a regular on Tuesdays.
“I love those guys. They served our country and took care of us so I try to take care of them,” Wiggins said.
When asked if she has a favorite in the group, she evades as gracefully as she herself serves, “They are all my favorites.”
The Riders returned the affection, presenting Wiggins with a plaque proclaiming her “Springfield’s 2022 Waitress of the Year.”
Dolores even went out on a mission with the group once, riding on the lead motorcycle during a funeral procession.
This Veterans Day weekend, the group will visit veterans at Birch Point Health and Rehab Center and Elfindale Manor on Saturday. Residents who are veterans will receive service branch flags and certificates of appreciation. The Riders will attend an appreciation luncheon Sunday for veterans who are members of Diggins Baptist Church in Seymour.
The Warriors’ Watch Riders’ big weekend event will be riding in Marshfield’s Veterans Day Parade at 2 p.m. Saturday. Dressed in club vests and hoodies, the group will ride their motorcycles, tossing candy and handing out small American flags to people along the parade route.
The Hauxeda met up with some of the Riders at Cedars on a recent Tuesday at Cedars Family Restaurant to learn a bit more about their lives.
