Rotary Couple Loves What They Do

Between them, Peggy and Maurie Mader have 46 years in service with the Rotary Club, but that’s not why they were named the Parsippany Rotary Club’s Outstanding Rotarians of the year. It’s more because of the services they’ve done since they first became members, with just one of their past deeds being the taking in of a French foreign exchange student for the 2007/2008 school year in Parsippany.

“I just thought it would be good for business,” Maurie says on why he originally joined the club in the first place in 1982, “But I just got caught up in it.”

Ditto for his wife, Peggy, who wanted to boost her banking job at the time in 1988 and is currently the treasurer of the organization today.

“It’s just a good organization to know people,” Peggy says.

The two of them have done their fair share to live up to the Four Way Test of the Rotary creed, which involves finding truth, being fair to all concerned, building goodwill and better friendships, and being beneficial to all concerned. They’ve even done it all over the world.

“I’ve been to Rotary meetings in Idaho, Alaska, and even Yukon,” says Maurie, “And Peggy’s even been to Budapest!”

But it’s what they’ve actually done as members in the group that has given them such prestige in the community. Maurie, who is currently the assistant governor, works with five different committees, works on the district newspaper with his wife, and is even in the Gift of Life Committee that brings kids in from all over the world so that trained surgeons can do heart surgery on them.

“It’s just spine tingling when you can bring them in and they’re turning blue, and a few weeks later, they’re absolutely fine.”

Peggy also aids in the duties, and besides being the treasurer, also works diligently in the Dictionary Project, which gets dictionaries to every single third grader in the Parsippany area.

“That’s over 700 kids every year,” Peggy says.

“So, as you can see,” Maurie jokes, “We don’t do much for the group.”

Modesty is obviously another one of the couple’s wonderful qualities.