VIP 23

Erik Bruun: Volunteering to make a difference
By Patrick Rheaume

With experience in journalism, political science, English, finance, social work and management, Erik Bruun's resume reads like a course book of subjects offered at a collegiate school of arts and sciences. Not surprisingly, he has taught journalism at Simon’s Rock College of Bard. However, a curriculum vitae hardly describes the magnitude of his involvement in the Great Barrington area.

He began volunteering his time in earnest while working as a free-lance writer. "Writing books is rather isolating," he says. "I wanted to branch out and meet people."

He has authored several nonfiction books, including the best-selling "Heavy Objects," a coffee-table compendium of photographs and essays. Other literary work includes editing American history anthologies and Berkshire Magazine.

Currently employed as the vice president of Lenox Capital, an investment firm, Bruun's social work involves organizations such as the Community Development Corporation of South Berkshire, the Berkshire Natural Resources Council and Housatonic River Restoration Inc.

Bruun seems most excited, however, about his work with the nonprofit Railroad Street Youth Project, an advocacy group for young people in the Berkshires. "Early on in its development, I was asked to be involved with Railroad Street," he recalls. "It's something I still enjoy."

"The mission of Railroad Street," says Bruun, "is to empower young people, to give them a voice in the community.” The group also runs a poetry workshop and mentors budding young playwrights.

Bruun believes that, "by allowing people to do good for society, you allow them to do good for themselves." Many teenagers, he says, have used the project to express a vision or idea that they wanted to see in fruition.

Of his work with the Housatonic River Initiative, Bruun credits the strength of a focused advocacy group with helping to preserve a shared resource. "When we needed to draft a restoration proposal, I was able to contribute to the effort by writing the document," he remembers.

He is quick to deflect praise, however. "My feeling has always been that, in order to succeed, a project needs engagement from a broad base of people," he says.

Born in Copenhagen, Denmark, Bruun was raised there and in New York City. He attended Trinity College in Hartford.

Soon after graduation, when The Eagle started a weekly called the Stateline Free Press, Bruun accepted a position as reporter. Within a few years, he had moved to The Eagle itself, where he worked for a total of five years in the North and South county bureaus.

With a partner, he founded the South Advocate News Weekly. "We founded the paper during a recession, at a time when many people didn't think a new newspaper could thrive," he says. "I learned the marketing and distribution side of the business very quickly, though." After 2 1/2 years, he sold the newspaper to work as chief of staff for former state rep. Christopher Hodgkins.

"Between the newspaper and political work, I had a lot of exposure to the importance of communication in a community."

Bruun lives with his wife, Lelia, and their children, Elizabeth and Andrew.

With more stage productions in the works, a flower business dubbed "Project Native," and The Body Project for female self-portraiture, the Railroad Street Youth Project is looking forward, and so is Bruun.

"In a small community like this one," he observes, "you have an opportunity to feel like you've made a contribution.”

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