THE MARIN COUNTY ROTARY PRESIDENTS ARE EXCITED TO NOMINATE DISTRICT 5150’S ROTARIAN OF THE MONTH FOR AUGUST 2017 FOR HER EXCEPTIONAL SERVICE TO THE IDEALS OF ROTARY … MARILYN NEMZER!
A Rotarian for 25 years, Marilyn Nemzer joined the Rotary Club of Tiburon Belvedere in 1992, and then moved to the Rotary Club Tiburon Sunset in 2015 where she was the 2016-2017 club president.
Marilyn’s “Rotary journey” began because of the Book Exchange, now called the Global Book Exchange, a nonprofit which she founded in 1987, which gives “a second life” to book that schools, libraries, and individuals might otherwise throw away. Bob King, then a Tiburon Belvedere Rotary Club member, called Marilyn, asking how to send a container of books to Kenya. Marilyn was ready to help, spending many hours with Bob and other Rotarians to send 30,000 school books to some of the neediest children in Africa; Marilyn not only made new friends and learned about Rotary’s good works but was invited to become a Rotarian!
Not surprisingly, the Global Book Exchange has received numerous awards, including the national Jefferson Award for Public Service in 2009, and the Award of Excellence from the Marin Economic Commission in 2004. Located in San Rafael, the Global Book Exchange is run solely by volunteers, including Rotarians, with Marilyn as Director. The good works of the Exchange benefit Bay Area teachers and local children plus more than 75 nonprofits, countless hospitals, prisons and libraries across the State, schools in US disaster areas, and orphanages across the globe. Marilyn conservatively estimates that the Exchange has given away more than 11 million books over 30 years in more than 35 countries.
Marilyn was named a Point of Light honoree in 2005, recognizing her as one of the top 25 volunteers in the Bay Area, but she has said that without Rotary volunteers, the Exchange would not exist today; she is grateful every day for the opportunity that Rotary has brought into her life and into the lives of so many millions of children at home and throughout the world.
Perhaps Nancy Cappelloni, an educational consultant, said it the best:
“There are persistent racial and ethnic gaps in student achievement in our schools. Marilyn helps close these gaps. By providing resources to children who might otherwise not have access to them, she is singlehandedly leveling the playfield of those who have and those who have not.”
The Rotary Clubs of Marin are very pleased to select as District 5150’s Rotarian of the Month for August 2017 – Marilyn Nemzer – for her unwavering time and effort to bring books and children together in the best tradition of “Service Above Self.”