Melissa Fligger looks fondly on her childhood days spent walking Bushy Run Battlefield’s 218 acres of woods, trails and open fields.
She and her father often took the two-minute walk from their Penn Township home to the state historical site of the 1763 clash between the British and Native Americans during Pontiac’s War.
Though Fligger now lives 10 miles away in Greensburg, she still spends a significant portion of her free time serving as the Bushy Run board’s vice president, working at the museum front desk or serving food from the concession stand during outdoor events in the summer.
After volunteering 235 hours at Bushy Run last year, Fligger was named the park’s volunteer of the year.
“I just like the nature of it,” said Fligger, 40. “I think it’s cool that such an important battle happened so close, and nobody really knows about it. Kind of a forgotten gem.”
16 years of service
Fligger has volunteered at Bushy Run since 2009, when the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission threatened to close the site because of budget concerns.
“That was the first call to arms,” she said. “Like ‘We need volunteers. We need people to help preserve this.’ ”
Fligger started out giving tours of the historical site, becoming the co-manager of the museum’s gift shop about five years later.
But a lot of Fligger’s volunteer work takes place behind the scenes.
“There’s a lot of financial stuff and a lot of paperwork that goes along with that management agreement with the state,” Fligger said. “Maintaining our own inventory, doing the pricing of all the things in the gift shop — that’s kind of a big process.”
As a member of the board, Fligger has helped hire the museum’s managers — including current Manager Matt Adams.
“She was kind of the first person I really had extensive conversations with at Bushy Run,” said Adams, who was hired in 2023. “She was super helpful and welcoming in that.”
Bushy Run has about 100 volunteers, Adams said, but only about 25 who volunteer with most of the site’s events. Whether directing crowds during its annual reenactment, wrangling dozens of fifth grade students during museum tours or tracking the site’s finances, volunteers are vital to Bushy Run’s daily operation, he said.
“We wouldn’t be able to do almost all of the big stuff that we do if it wasn’t for volunteers,” said Adams, Bushy Run’s only paid employee. “I rely on them for basically everything that happens here.”
Aside from Bushy Run, Fligger has her hands full as a special education teacher and coordinator of student academics at the Clelian Heights School in Hempfield. She serves also as president of the Autism Society of America’s branch in Westmoreland County and head of athlete recruitment for Special Olympics of Westmoreland County.
“(Bushy Run) is an important place. It’s an important battle,” Fligger said. “And I just want to be able to make sure that it’s preserved — that it can stay here for the future to understand the impact that battle had.”
Volunteers crucial
Bushy Run has seen a slight increase in volunteerism in recent years, Adams said — a trend that falls in line with national data.
More than 75 million United States residents 16 years or older — more than 28% of the population — formally volunteered with an organization from September 2022 to September 2023, according to a November 2024 study by the U.S. Census Bureau and AmeriCorps.
This is just 1.7% lower than before the covid-19 pandemic, which saw a significant drop in volunteerism. About 23% of U.S. residents 16 years or older volunteered in 2021, according to the study.
But historical organizations like Bushy Run are not out of the woods when it comes to volunteer shortages, Adams said.
“I’ve got friends that work in museums that they’ve had to slow down or stop what they’re doing because they don’t have enough volunteers,” he said.
Though Bushy Run is not at that point yet, the issue is still on Adams’ radar as the park’s volunteer population ages.
“We’re very, very glad to have Melissa. We’re very grateful for all the work that she does,” Adams said. “We just hope that the Volunteer of the Year Award is one small way to show her how much we appreciate her.”
Bushy Run will have an informational meeting for volunteers sometime in the spring, Fligger said.
Those who are interested in volunteering at the historical site can stop by the museum, call 724-527-5584 to reach the front desk or email manager@bushyrunbattlefield.com.