DeMarce has served many groups for years

Nov. 28—Since moving to Mankato in 1968 to attend college, Pam DeMarce has been an active member and leader in at least five community service organizations and has focused her efforts on the betterment of children.

While in college, she worked at Taylor Corp. in North Mankato. Upon graduating in 1972, she was offered a full-time position and there she stayed as a loyal employee for 35 years.

When she retired in 2007, DeMarce and her now ex-husband Doug built the Wow! Zone.

Through it all, DeMarce has found a way to be heavily involved in the community and give back as much of her time as she could.

When asked why, her answer was simple.

"I come from a family that believed in giving back. I saw it in my parents," the 68-year-old said. "In my belief, if you're taking space on this Earth, you need to give back what you've been given."

DeMarce has done just that.

Throughout her years in Mankato, she has been a part of countless organizations and has been recognized for it, too.

Years ago, the YWCA Mankato honored DeMarce as a Woman of Distinction.

"I've been involved in organizations probably since the 80s. This isn't new. It's something I've been doing, really, all my life," she said. "Everything I do isn't about myself, but it's about what these organizations do, so I'm going to talk about some of the ones I've been in the longest."

Minnesota Valley Civitan

Civitan International is an "organization of volunteer service clubs around the world, dedicated to helping people in their own communities," according to their website, Civitan.org.

The organization focuses on helping individuals, especially children, with developmental disabilities.

The Minnesota Valley Civitan has been in Mankato since 1987, and DeMarce has been with them from the very start.

"There are groups that focus on individuals with disabilities. Whether it's LEEP, Special Olympics, MRCI, that's the common denominator," she said.

"By being involved in Civitan, I'm able to help LEEP, I'm able to help Special Olympics and MRCI. You're part of something bigger. You're working together on whatever that mission is."

Mankato Sunrise Lions

The Sunrise Lions is a nonprofit organization that "helps where help is needed," according to their mission statement.

In 1988, DeMarce joined ADA Lions before shifting over to the Sunrise Lions.

"What I love about Sunrise Lions is that you've got this group of people working on areas of sight and hearing, on the areas of diabetes Those are their main focuses," she said.

"It's all about kids and supporting youth in our community. That's the same about all of the organizations I'm with. They all have a focus, but they also do that added step of continuing to support kids in our community."

Sunrise Lions Secretary Rich Wheeler expressed how lucky they are to have DeMarce as part of their organization.

"She's got ideas for fundraisers like you wouldn't believe," he said. "She's very creative, and she's got a good mind for things like that. In order to help our club, her ideas, her volunteering, her space (the Wow! Zone) and connections have been critical."

The Greater Mankato Rotary Club

Rotary is a service club made up of volunteer leaders that unite to "serve youth and community for a better world," and "actively promote the health and well-being of all youth and developing leaders," according to their website, MankatoRotary.org.

DeMarce has been with them since the '90s and is currently president of the group.

"Rotary has so many different areas of focus, but our main mission is all about kids," she said. "Something new that I'm really excited about is we recently picked up a new initiative around the theory of literacy."

DeMarce believes that youth that are unable to read are significantly disadvantaged. Rotary is putting an action plan together to help solve the issue.

"I think 70% of our kids are literate. Too many are illiterate," she said. "We encourage anyone who's interested in literacy to get in touch with me, because we want to do some really awesome work around literacy in our community."

Rotary board member Tamera Saar thinks highly of DeMarce, calling her an amazing and incredible person all around.

"I can tell you that our membership has grown because of her. She's just very proactive about everything," she said. "She also wants to have everybody included involved. It's always a team. It's not just 'I'm Pam and we're gonna do it my way.' She's always willing to get everyone's input on how to make things better."

Sertoma Club of Greater Mankato

Sertoma of Mankato's goal is to "improve the quality of life today for those at risk or impacted by hearing loss through education and support," according to their mission statement.

DeMarce is the current president of the group. She first joined for a handful of reasons, but her main inspiration came from her personal life.

"Their focus is helping mostly children that are hearing impaired. My twin and I were born with birth defects in our ears and we had our eardrums rebuilt at a young age. Because of that, catching it young and all, I don't have to wear hearing aids. But my twin does," she said. "So she was affected a little more than I was."

Her twin, Pat Thompson, is a retired special education teacher. She learned sign language and worked with many hearing impaired children during her career.

Both Thompson and DeMarce used their own experiences to fuel the work they do within the community.

Optimist Club of Minnesota Valley

The Optimist Club is "dedicated to bringing out the best in kids by providing hope and positive vision," according to their mission statement.

DeMarce has been with the organization for about 10-15 years.

She said she stays because, "in this world we live in today, we need optimism."

When DeMarce worked at Taylor Corp., she happened to be at the printing press when Optimist was printing their creed.

At the time, she didn't know what it was. But she pulled it off of the press and gave it a read:

"Promise Yourself To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.

To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet.

To make all your friends feel that there is something in them.

To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.

To think only of the best, to work only for the best and to expect only the best.

To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.

To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.

To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile.

To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.

To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear and too happy to permit the presence of trouble."

DeMarce was particularly fond of the second to last line. She decided then to live her life according to the creed, not knowing she would one day end up in the club it belongs to.

"It's a growing group and I think it's much needed in this time and age," she said. "Our focus is also all about kids. We help the Boy Scouts, the YWCA, the YMCA and American Heritage Girls, to name a few."

Thompson is the new president of Optimist and said her twin radiates what the club is all about.

"We both try to be optimists, but she's definitely optimistic about everything. Especially about the projects she puts together," she said.

Mankato Kiwanis Club

The Mankato Kiwanis Club has been serving the greater Mankato community since 1921, in the pursuit of serving the needs of children.

The nonprofit organization is well known for Camp Patterson, Thunder of Drums and Kiwanis Lights.

DeMarce is a fairly new member to the club, only having joined a couple of years ago, but she says she enjoys it.

"Much like all the other groups, they're all about helping kids," she said. "And there is great collaboration happening among all of these service clubs. We want to do even more. We want to pull together the leadership of all these groups and continue to work on the collaboration of how we can help each other be successful."

For the kids

Everything DeMarce does is for future generations.

"Children are the future. If we do not take care of our children, we are doing a very big disservice to our community and to those youth."

Despite not having any kids of her own, DeMarce feels like she has plenty.

"I tell people I have lots of children," she said.

DeMarce graduated from Minnesota State University with a bachelors in elementary education. She never entered the field, but she still found a way to work with kids.

"We don't always know what that plan is," she said. "But the plan is in place and I look back now over my 68 years of life and it's incredible how it's all come together."

DeMarce now asks the younger generation to step in and continue the work that she, along with many others, have done for the greater good of the community.

"I think when I die, I will die knowing I've done all I can," she said. "That's all you can really do. Do what you can while you're here."

The Free Press "Making a Difference" feature highlights people in the community who are making a difference in their efforts whether in their work or volunteer activities. To nominate people send suggestions to editor@mankatofreepress.com with Making a Difference in the subject line.