By Taryn Plumb | GLOBE CORRESPONDENT
DECEMBER 29, 2013
A lot of people in Wilmington — and beyond — know Steve Bjork is a good guy. Well, now the comedian by trade – and altruist by habit – can claim that title with all certainty, as he was recently bestowed with the town’s annual “good guy” award, which recognizes locals who generously devote their time to the betterment of the community.
“He’s a very unselfish individual who gives his time for many reasons,” said Joan Searfoss, a member of the committee that chooses each year’s “good guy” (which can be a man or a woman). “The list of organizations that he helps just goes on and on and on.”
Bjork, 45, who moved to Wilmington as a child, has volunteered with fund-raisers for Local Heroes, which ships care packages to troops overseas; the St. Thomas Appalachian Mountain Project, which helps rebuild homes for displaced individuals; the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life; the local Sons of Italy, which provides donations and scholarships; and his town’s chamber of commerce, youth hockey, and police association.
He’s also actively involved with Wilmington’s Rotary Club; sits on the executive board of the Friends of the Wilmington Memorial Library; organizes and moderates his town’s annual candidates’ night; and emcees the “good guy” dinner every year — a role he thought he would again play this year, until he walked into the Knights of Columbus Hall in Wilmington and was “surprised and humbled” to discover that he was the recipient. They’d kept it a secret from him.
All this between his regular comedy gigs, which he described as “corporate clean, basically squeaky.”
And if that weren’t enough, he and his wife, Georgett, recently took in three young siblings – 3-year-old Carrie and 5-year-old twin boys Blake and Isaiah – and are working toward adoption.
As Bjork explained, they heard about the kids’ “tough start,” initially got involved by helping baby-sit, and then heard they were going to be placed in different foster homes.
“We couldn’t stand the idea of them being separated,” he said.
With his stepson, Michael, 24, grown and out on his own, “it was a life-changer, to say the least,” Bjork said of the three small children. “We thought this part of our lives was over.”
But the kids are his “best friends” and “happy, healthy, and thriving."
“While we weren’t looking for it,” he said, “it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to us.”
But he wasn’t always so involved. He was prompted into duty about 10 years ago, he said, while working for the Wilmington Town Crier. Like many, he had assumed things just got done in town until, in the course of reporting, he saw the dire need for volunteers and community service.
“You can sum him up as a good human in the first few seconds you meet him,” said Tony V., a Boston-based comedian. “He genuinely cares. I don’t think Steve has ever said no to a good cause.”
Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff
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