Rotary: Building community, brick by brick

By Penny Hansen

Special to Marinscope

Novato resident Elayne Miller, who lives across the street from Novato City Hall, organized a Purchase a Brick project in 2008. 

This coincided with the massive renovation of turning the original First Presbyterian Church of Novato into a City Hall conference room while maintaining the original exterior of the church architecture, the city on Novato’s logo. 

The City Hall brick patio has become the history of the people who made Novato.Citizens could purchase a brick with personalized engraving to be placed in thenew expansive City Hall wrap-around patio. Donor purchases gained withadditions of Citizens of the Year, mayors, retirees and everyone else contributedto the Project. 

The bricks piled up.

With incredible forethought and organization, a labor force was also needed to remove blank bricks to be replaced with engraved bricks. The Rotary Club of Novato provided a willing crew. 

It was heavy-on-the-knees work.

Perhaps, when the day allows, classrooms of students should walk Novato’s brick walk of fame to see the chronology of our City history.