With the high amount of political discord and the growing acts of hate and violence in our country today, messages that reinforce such positive values as care, respect, and unity resonate strongly with people. These are messages that provide hope rather than despair, so relevant for today. They are what storyteller Marty Brounstein has been delivering with his book, The Righteous Few: Two Who Made A Difference. His speaking on the book has now gone on for nine years with 750 events.

His book conveys the true story about a Christian couple in the Netherlands named Frans and Mien Wijnakker who, despite great risk and danger, saved the lives of more than two dozen Jews from certain death during World War II and the Holocaust. Marty also has a meaningful personal connection to the story, which he reveals in his engaging storytelling presentations.

This book was not always Marty’s main work. For over 25 years he led a management consulting firm where he wrote eight books related to business management, from contributing author to sole author, including Communicating Effectively For Dummies, Coaching and Mentoring For Dummies, and Managing Teams For Dummies. But his 9th book is quite different and special. This inspirational story has put Marty on quite an unexpected journey of facilitating book discussions, conducting workshops, and delivering public storytelling presentations.

Marty’s events with the story have occurred throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, his home base, and 15 other cities across the country—New York, Boston, Chicago, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Seattle among them. The engagements have been in such venues as churches, synagogues, Muslim organizations, community centers, service organizations, people’s homes, Rotary Clubs, bookstores, schools, universities, libraries, book clubs, Holocaust and history museums. Plus his Making a Positive Difference workshop has been a big hit at professional conferences and in workplaces.

Because of his work over the years, Marty became a recipient of the prestigious Jefferson Award for the Bay Area region in late 2019. The award comes from the organization Multiplying Good, founded by among others Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in 1972. It recognizes those who perform acts of service to the community and public good in America.

In baseball lingo, Marty is batting 1,000 in terms of positive audience response, as people keep encouraging him to share this story of courage and compassion because of its positive and relevant messages for today. In addition, attendees often comment how this story would make a great feature film.