WELLFLEET – “Do you know the word, ‘mensch’?” asked Matthew Belson. Belson, the owner of Shellfish Broker LLC in Chatham, was trying to describe attorney Bruce Bierhans.
“It’s a term in Yiddish,” said Belson. It’s high praise, meaning a really good person. Someone who goes above and beyond.”
“To put it in non-Yiddish terms, he’s someone who will give you the shirt off his back,” said Belson. “If you need him, he will be there in a heartbeat.”
Bruce Bierhans in front of Wellfleet Preservation Hall. CAPE COD WAVE PHOTO
To put it yet another way, here is a list of local non-profit organizations that Bierhans has volunteered his time or expertise to, some as president and others as CEO, board member and/or legal counsel: Wellfleet Preservation Hall, Outer Cape Health Services, Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater, Payomet Performing Arts Center, Arts Foundation Of Cape Cod, Cape Wellness Collaborative, WOMR, Cape & Islands Physicians Council, and Common Table.
The fact that he is a lawyer makes his help especially beneficial, and his friendly, enthusiastic can-do personality is a force multiplier.
“I can’t think of anybody who has stepped up more in support of non-profits and civic organizations around the Cape than Bruce,” said former state senator Dan Wolf, another frequent volunteer in many Cape causes.
Jen Villa, executive director of Love Live Local, a nonprofit that promotes local business, said, “Bruce is wildly involved in the Cape Cod community. Villa, who was a founding board member of Cape Wellness Collaborative, cited, especially, “his enthusiasm and passion to make something happen.”
The Need To Give Back
What is the poetry of a life? Where does the rhyme and reason begin?
When Bierhans, 69, was a child growing up in the the Pelham Park area of the South Bronx, New York, he had two serious accidents that, he realized in retrospect, shaped the trajectory and mission of his life.
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