Marilyn Starker 2009 Meritorious Service Awardee
Starker honored for work with kids, families
By the Gazette-Times
“She’s been an advocate for the homeless and impoverished.
Marilyn Starker, a longtime advocate for Benton County’s homeless and impoverished children and families, is this year’s winner of the Rotary Meritorious Service Award.
For years, Starker has worked with children and families at Community Outreach Inc. in Corvallis. She was the driving force behind the creation of Mari’s Place, the therapeutic child-care center that opened in 2002 on the campus of Community Outreach.
Starker was presented with the award at last week’s meeting of the Rotary Club of Corvallis. She was lured to the meeting under false pretenses, and so she didn’t know she was going to receive the award.
“I’m totally surprised,” she said after the presentation. “It truly has been a pleasure to follow a dream that I have had and that my family has had.”
She and her husband, Bond, made substantial contributions to the creation of Mari’s Place.
But Rich Donovan, the executive director of Community Outreach, said it’s telling that Marilyn Starker refused to have the school named after her. She finally relented, Donovan recalled, when presented with a compromise choice: “Mari’s Place.”
“It’s about protecting children and supporting their parents,” Starker said.
For Starker, though, it’s more than that: Donovan noted that Starker routinely works 60 to 70 hours a week at Community Outreach, “quietly working with children who are many times very difficult to handle.” She also works with the parents of the children, helping them to develop child-rearing skills.
“Marilyn’s humility and fearlessness as an advocate for these kids is truly remarkable,” Donovan said.
The award is administered by the Benton County Foundation and has been awarded since 1990 to someone who has worked to enrich the lives of children.
The first winner was Bev Larson of Old Mill Center; last year’s winner was Tom Gerding. The names of winners are engraved on a statue in the Reading Room of the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library.”