Photography by Steve Buchanan
It was probably no less important than a wedding anniversary or birthday when Sue Weber celebrated her 10th year with the Rotary Club of Annapolis in September of last year. As far as Weber is concerned, she’s just getting started. The 60-year-old Weber hopes to be around to celebrate her 30th in 2041. And she’s still as active as ever. You can call her the volunteer of volunteers.
“I am in it for life,” says Weber, who is a real estate agent with Long & Foster. “This group is my family. I grew up in Connecticut, so I have no family in this area. Rotary became that. It filled that void for me.”
Weber, an Arnold resident, has held an incredible number of leadership positions and committee chairmanships since joining the club in 2011. It took her a while to come up with the number: 25. She previously held the highest position in the organization, president, and now serves as treasurer.
“When I wake up in the morning and my feet hit the ground, I am going nonstop,” Weber says. “I am a professional multitasker. I just like helping people. There are three things I ask myself before I go to bed every night: Would my father be proud? Was I a good mother? Did I make a difference in a stranger’s life today?”
The answers, according to Rotary Club of Annapolis President Carolyn Richards, is a resounding yes. Richards knows Weber is her go-to person when she needs a volunteer.
“We joke and say, ‘Sue can’t do everything,’” Richards explains. “‘What more can she do?’ She always finds a way. She is always there for everybody no matter what it is or what her schedule looks like. You just don’t find many people like her.”
The 101-year-old Rotary Club of Annapolis boasts 160 members and is one of 60 chapters in Maryland. Its mission is to offer humanitarian service and help build goodwill and peace worldwide while encouraging high ethical standards.
International aid trips and conferences are important to Weber. She and seven others went to Uganda in 2017 on a medical mission. The group brought the local community an ambulance and medical supplies. Weber personally pitched in by helping get medical care for a young boy with asthma. She has contributed $1,500 of her own money each year to a hospital for the 10-year-old’s medical treatment over the past six straight years. Weber also paid $500 to plant trees because the village, Lira, was in desperate need of tree canopy.
“She is the most caring, giving person I have ever met,” Richards says of Weber, who has attended International Rotary conferences in Germany, Toronto, and Atlanta. “She makes people’s lives better for whoever she has met.”
Additionally, she’s front and center in organizing the club’s two biggest annual fundraisers, serving as chair of the Rotary Club of Annapolis Crab Feast at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, and co-chair for Black Tie & Diamonds Gala. The Crab Feast, held in August, is considered the biggest event of its kind in the world, according to the organization’s website. It started in 1945 and attracts about 2,500 people every year.
“Many people would not step up to that,” Richards says of the crab feast. “It is huge. She has a family and is working like everybody else. She’s like, ‘I will do it and step up.’ She does it really well. She is so organized and knows what to do. She brings a certain exciting flair to it. She gets people motivated. She’s like a volunteer motivator.”
Rotary Club of Annapolis member Mary Felter admires Weber, who is married with two children, for her can-do-anything attitude. Felter handled public relations for the organization for 10 years.
“She is so devoted to providing service to others,” Felter says. “Rotary’s motto is service to others. She exemplifies that in everything she does. She is remarkable. She doesn’t talk about what she does. She just does it. She is so encouraging. She accomplishes what she does with such clarity, so you want to help out.”
Do you have a volunteer to nominate? Send What's Up? an email to editor@whatsupmag.com.
