The Optimist Club of Marshalltown announced that Margaret Gervich will be honored as the 2020 Citizen of the Year at the annual Citizen of the Year Roast on April 2.

Gervich was selected by a committee of previous Citizen of the Year honorees, based on her extensive involvement in current community activities, as well as her previous volunteer commitments over the past 35 years.

Currently, Gervich serves on the Marshalltown High School/Community Auditorium Board, as a member since 1989 and a Past President. She is the treasurer of the Central Iowa Residential Services Board, which she joined in 1994. In 2018, she was a member of the CIRSI Galaxy Campaign that raised $40,000 to purchase a wheelchair accessible van for residents. She currently serves as the president of the CIRSI Foundation.

Gervich is also a member of the Marshalltown Assistance League, currently serving as sustainer representative. She was the League’s president in 1989-1990. Her other committee memberships include the Reach Out and Read Committee, Fisher Community Center Complex Committee and co-chair of the Fisher Community Center Masterpiece Restoration Fundraiser.

Previously, Gervich served on the Iowa River Hospice Board and the Domestic Violence Alternatives Board. She has been strongly involved with the Marshalltown Community School District in several capacities. She served on the Facilities and Children Together Safely Bond Issue Committee that promoted the building of an addition to Franklin School. Her involvement included PTA, School Improvement Teams, the MCSD Volunteer Program and mentor in the district from 1991 to 2001.

Gervich’s energies also benefited the Marshalltown YMCA-YWCA when she served on the Heritage Club Board and participated in the Partner with Youth Campaign. She and her husband Doug were the recipients of the YMCA-YWCA Ryden Service Award.

When Gervich served on the 13th Street District Committee, she helped to revive and improve the social, cultural and business opportunities in the historical area of Marshalltown.

She maintains membership in several local organizations including 100 Women Who Care, P.E.O. Chapter NU, Hawthorne Club and St. Francis of Assisi Parish.

As the daughter of the late Maxine and John Croker, of Marshalltown, Gervich graduated from Lenihan High School in 1970, earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Speech Pathology from Northeast Missouri State University (now Truman State University) in 1974 and a Master’s Degree in Speech Pathology in 1975.

She was employed as a speech pathologist in the Fort Madison, Ottumwa and Marshalltown Community School Districts. She has also worked as a clinical supervisor and instructor at Northeast Missouri State University.

Gervich and her husband Doug have two daughters, Samantha (Nate) Kaeding, and Molly (Kendall) Dammeier, and two sons, John (Claire) Gervich and Aaron Gervich. They claim five grandchildren as well, including Jack, Wyatt, Tess and Harper Kaeding and Vivian Dammeier.

Details about the upcoming Roast banquet to honor Gervich will be forthcoming.