Perfect volunteer

At 95, Ruth Berglund doesn’t know the meaning of the word “quit.”

“I saw too many people retire and just sit around,” Berglund said. “Now they’re gone. I just want to keep going.”

Berglund spends about 50 hours a week volunteering with the Spokane Police Department. Twice a week, she suits up in her police uniform and catches the bus to staff her shift at either the Spokane Courthouse or the STA Plaza.

At both places, she works in the information booth, directing visitors and answering questions. At the Plaza, Berglund also walks the grounds for exercise and looks for anything out of the ordinary.

She hasn’t missed a day’s work in 10 years, logging more than 4,700 hours.

“We’re glad to have Ruth,” said Gene LaLiberte, co-director of senior volunteers for Spokane Police Department. “She is a pleasure. You can tell she loves what she does.”

Born and raised on a cattle farm in Baggs, Wyo., Berglund worked hard at a young age.

“I was the second boy in our family for many years,” Berglund remembers with a laugh. “When my parents needed extra help I would go out.”

She would rise at 6 a.m. and work until she went to bed around 9 p.m. Leading a stacker horse at age 5 is one of her earliest memories.

“Old Maude knew more about it than I did,” Berglund recalls. “I held onto the rope. When she got to the right place, she would stop and I would pull the rope.”

Berglund met her husband, Clarence, at a country dance in 1929. A year later, they married and started their own farm. A severe drought in 1934 forced them to leave and move to Washington state.

“We planned on only visiting Clarence’s sister in Spokane,” Berglund said. “But we wound up living here.”

Together they raised three children. Berglund was a stay-at-home mom until her son, Joe, became ill with polio and narcolepsy. His medical bills forced her to take a job at Miller, Moler and Flynn, a small downtown dry goods store.

She later worked at Montgomery Ward and in the payroll office at Sacred Heart Medical Center. After leaving Sacred Heart, she worked out of her own home as secretary for the Rebekah Lodge.

“As secretary I got to travel all over Washington and Alaska,” Berglund said. “I made a lot of good friends.”

In 1965, she became a secretary for Spokane School District. She worked there until she retired.

“At that time they forced you to retire at 65,” Berglund said. “Otherwise I would have continued to work.”

Clarence died in 1990. After his passing, Berglund cared for an ill neighbor until her death in 1996. Restless, Berglund turned to volunteering to keep herself active.

“I’m not one to sit and watch TV,” said Berglund, “Some of my friends volunteer, and I liked the sound of that.”

She also volunteers at the South Hill COPS shop and KSPS-TV.

“She is very energetic,” KSPS’s Executive Director Patty Starkey said. “She’s an inspiration to us.”

Living in the same home since 1940, Berglund does her own house and yard work, except for mowing. She loves gardening on her large double lot. Her landscape boasts 50 rose plants, an assortment of dahlias, gladiolas, snapdragons, petunias, daffodils, tulips and peonies.

“I do everything to take care of them,” Berglund said.

Walking is an important part of Berglund’s routine. In 1980, she could walk 4 miles in an hour. Today she walks three or four times a week, an average of 2 miles a day.

She also enjoys reading, crocheting, knitting and making dolls out of plastic canvas.

“I hope to work until I drop,” Berglund said. “I really mean that.”