One would think that Anders Bjork’s leadership off the ice, along with his runaway status as the team’s top point-getter, would make him a key cog in motivating his Notre Dame Fighting Irish teammates to excel in the game’s toughest situations.
True as that may be, that is not what distinguishes Bjork in the broader South Bend community. A unique staple in this college hockey player and Boston Bruins prospect’s routine entails working with students at a neighboring elementary school.
The Perley Fine Arts Academy runs from kindergarten through fourth grade, comprising a total enrollment of 203 and with a heavy volume of Black, Hispanic and multiracial students. As part of its vision statement, Perley stresses “academic social and emotional growth” and “cultural awareness and diversity.”
The vision statement concludes, “We form higher-education partnerships to cultivate the strength of our program and enable individuals to flourish.”
Few individuals have a chance to epitomize that higher-education partnership than the top scorer and alternate captain of the Notre Dame hockey team.
Bjork’s experience at Perley has earned him a nomination for the Hockey Humanitarian Award. Among six individual finalists, all of whom are upperclassmen, he extraordinarily joins Merrimack’s Collin Delia as the only two juniors.
But his relationship with the third graders at this school began in the most ordinary of ways.
“I don’t know,” Bjork told USCHO correspondent Jake Brown. “I guess I never really thought it was a big deal. As I became close with the kids at Perley, it just became a part of my life. They’re just my friends, I felt like, especially the staff and stuff. The kids, too. I felt like they were almost like my little siblings or something. They’re a part of my life.
“The teacher was always sending me stuff of the kids, so our relationship picked up fast. They became a part of my life, so I didn’t feel like it was a big deal because I was just with my friends.”
Bjork’s ability to make friends so effortlessly shocked Courtney Baraney, a third-grade teacher who has taught for 10 years at Perley. Bjork experienced no issues seamlessly helping a group of often-rowdy third graders with a math assignment.
“The kids listened to him,” Baranay told Eric Russo of BostonBruins.com. “I walked out there and they were glued to his side and I thought, ‘Oh, well here we go. I have somebody that can maybe help these kids to understand.
Ordinarily, Notre Dame hockey players are expected to devote 15 hours of each year to community service. Bjork quickly did more than that and kept returning to this school.
Why would he do that? Baraney has the answers.
As a junior, Bjork earned one of the three “As” on Notre Dame’s list of captains for this season. But at Perley, he is affectionately known as “Mr. B.” (Photo by Richard T. Gagnon/Getty Images)
“He respects them. He doesn’t talk at them, he talks to them,” said Baranay to Russo. “I am sure he has been in trouble for being late to practice because he will not leave until he has spoken to every one of these children in this room.
“And if somebody is missing he wants to know where they are. I don’t even have the patience that he has with these children. The more experiences we can give these children, the better chance they have of surviving in the world. Anders fits right in. He gives them that glimpse of what is possible outside of these walls.
“He is their Mr. B.”
Mr. B has clearly made his impact on the ice this season, as his 44 points in only 32 games positioning his Fighting Irish in third place in Hockey East.
But even his Notre Dame head coach Jeff Jackson knows Bjork’s story is more than the numbers. It is about how he has continued to transform lives through his inspiring presence at Perley Fine Arts.
“Some of the things he does he reaches out and does them on his own,” said Jackson to USCHO. “He’s an impressive young man. I give his mom and dad a lot of credit because obviously for him to take on those kind of things himself is something that’s impressive. Willing to give back to the community and especially dealing with young kids, trying to show them the way.
“I think what he’s done is incredible. Especially the fact that a kid of his ability level, you don’t always get that with kids that are really good players or great players. You don’t always get that level of humility.”
Bjork’s dedication to doing a job and doing it well consumes his entire being. He desires to be with the students every week, even if it means missing practice.
“He has texted me before and said, ‘Listen, I have 20 minutes before I have to be at practice, but I cannot go a week without seeing my kids,’” Baranay told Russo. “He will show up in this classroom and he will find those kids and he will make sure that they are having a good day.”
More than simply checking in and talking to the students about their day, Bjork has had the opportunity to inspire them to keep working even when schoolwork or life becomes difficult
If he hears the students start to give up on themselves and claim that they will never be able to go to college, he enters the picture immediately,
“When they bring up, ‘I’m not going to college,’ or, ‘I can’t do that,’ he will stop what he’s doing and he will turn to them and say, ‘You absolutely can. It doesn’t take money and doesn’t take things. It takes a desire to want to do something,’’’ Baranay said.
“That is what he is showing them. And also by coming, he has a desire to be here. I tell those kids all the time, ‘If there is something you would like to do in your life, then have the desire.’ He gives them hope, he gives them hope.”
Hope is probably what these students need most and Bjork provides that in ways that may not be quantifiable in the same way that his on-ice performance has helped Notre Dame this season.
“These children have experienced levels of disappointment and heartbreak that many of us will never have to live through. I can tell you stories of these children being removed from their homes, watching their parents getting shot right in front of them, and on and on,” said Baraney in a press release printed on Notre Dame’s website.
“But Anders has been one of the most constant, loving figures in their young lives. He gives them what some of their own parents cannot–his time and love.”
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