Couple knows importance of volunteer work

When Bernie and Sue Birk moved in 2009 to their Tortosa home, they didn’t waste any time getting involved in community activities.

Both started volunteering for their home owners association. Ellen Buddington, Tortosa’s lifestyle director, sings their praises: “If there were more people like Bernie and Sue Birk, the world would be a heavenly place. They make up 50 percent of my social committee and attend and volunteer at every event they can.”

The Birks agree giving back to the community is important. Bernie, 68, learned the value of volunteers a number of years ago when he worked at Desert Mission Food Bank as the warehouse supervisor. In charge of 50 volunteers, he saw firsthand how valuable volunteers were to a company.

So if volunteers are valuable to a company, they must be valuable to a community and the Birks got busy. They volunteer for almost every event at Tortosa, doing everything from serving on the social committee to attending and participating in the events.

Sue, 66, is an active social committee member and volunteers to perform any task, great or small, whether it’s supervising children as they dye 540 eggs at the Tortosa Eggstragavanza or simply waking up at the crack of dawn on a Saturday to replenish Community Garage Sale maps.

Sometimes Sue’s multiple sclerosis limits her physical activities, but that doesn’t stop her. She got a cherry red adult trike for Christmas and enjoys that along with short neighborhood walks, swimming and weight lifting.

As she puts it, “I may have MS, but MS doesn’t have me. There are things I can do and volunteering makes me feel good.” So, when necessary, she relies on a cane or her husband to steady her walk, or just takes a breather — and then gets back to work.

Sue calls Bernie a jack of all trades. “He can do anything — mechanics, electronics, computers,” and those skills come in handy at social events when something needs building, wiring or whatever.

In addition to Tortosa events, Bernie volunteers for the Maricopa Police Department. Among those activities are manning the radar trailer that monitors speed, assisting park rangers, and patrolling schools and neighborhoods. (Sue said he just did it because he wanted to drive the police car. Bernie grined.)

“Naturally, if we (the PD volunteers) see anything, we call the police and they handle it,” Bernie said. “But it’s really nice when we are patrolling areas and people come up to us and say ‘thanks for doing this.’”

Bernie and Sue were high school sweethearts — sort of.

“He was the new guy at school and had the prettiest blue eyes, a really handsome guy,” Sue said. So, at a school dance, she asked him to dance. “We got out on the floor and he was acting like a total goofball, flopping his arms around.” She turned around and left him there.