In our monthly magazine, The Rotarian, extraordinary Rotarians are sometimes featured. The article will tell that, although everyone works at being a Rotarian, some work harder and do more.

So it is in our club.

Leah Ducato Rudolph has been treasurer of our club for the past three years. Taking on that job is no easy task. We pay monthly dues and get a bill which not only tells what we owe for Rotary but also includes the cost of the lunches we have eaten at the Ramada weekly sessions, and any fund raising project we have contributed to. The treasurer must also account for every penny that comes into the Rotary Club and pay our dues to our national organization.

No one wanted this job, so Leah took it.

She changed the way we pay our dues, so it is easier for us. She changed the accounting system, so reporting is better for all of us. She comes early to meetings and stays later, so she is available to receive our money. Our financial accounting is once a year scrutinized by an outside firm and she must turn all of that over in good order at a certain time.

She is great at this job.

We recently were given our proposed officers for next year. Leah has turned over this job to a banker, who had been secretary. She said it makes more sense for the banker to be the treasurer and the former librarian to be the secretary.

Again, this job of secretary is not an easy one.

Communication is disbursed often to all club members through texts and emails. Minutes are taken at board meetings and typed and distributed for all to see. Once again, Leah has stepped up to take an unwanted job at Rotary.

At one time, she was the able writer for this column, as liaison from the Rotary Club of the Abingtons to the Abington Journal and through that medium to you, the reader. She never missed a deadline and her columns were interesting and well written.

Leah has also been the dictionary chairman for the past few years. Every third-grader in our area receives a free dictionary from Rotary. This task is not easy, either. Dictionaries are delivered in big boxes and must be divided and distributed to every grade school. No third-grader is missed. Whether the child is in public school or in one of our many private schools, Leah has hand delivered a dictionary to each child and done so in a most gracious manner for five years.

No one should be surprised that Leah has taken on these jobs and done each of them with grace and care.

She recently retired as librarian from our local library. She took the library from its original beginnings and really made it the Abington Community Library. At any time the library was open, you could see our community in there.

Some children were part of the LEGO competition and were seen with other kids building LEGOs into remarkable structures.

When the quilters and the knitters were looking for a place to gather, the library was open to them and many of the hand-made items were then used to raffle off for other projects.

Movies were shown and discussed.

Families struggling with members with addiction met at the library with professionals to give guidance.

Leah made the library the place where household drugs were dropped off under the watchful eye of the district attorney and disposed of safely.

She had been a great librarian, expanding the library in every possible way. She left that job to devote more time to being a grandmother. She is also a member of her church choir and an avid football fan, wife, mother and grandmother.

The motto she lives by is written on every email she sends: “If everyone did a little, no one would have to do a lot.”

So it is that one of our own should receive applause for the work she has done with efficiency and grace, for the benefit of many. We salute our present treasurer and soon-to-be secretary Leah Ducato Rudolph.

https://www.theabingtonjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/web1_ABJ_Eileen_Christian_Rotary_Column.jpg.optimal.jpg

Leah Ducato Rudolph holds her grandson, Abraham Campbell, while posing for a photo with her family during a party held last May in honor of her retirement as executive director of the Abington Community Library. From left, are Donna Leah Guenther Ducato, Ken Rudolph, Ryan Campbell, Julia Rudolph Campbell and Lisa Ducato Ross.
https://www.theabingtonjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/web1_ABJ-Leah.jpg.optimal.jpgLeah Ducato Rudolph holds her grandson, Abraham Campbell, while posing for a photo with her family during a party held last May in honor of her retirement as executive director of the Abington Community Library. From left, are Donna Leah Guenther Ducato, Ken Rudolph, Ryan Campbell, Julia Rudolph Campbell and Lisa Ducato Ross. Elizabeth Baumeister file photo | Abington Journal

Rotary Club of the Abingtons

Eileen Christian

Reach the Abington Journal newsroom at 570-587-1148.