Exemplary Volunteer
Leigh Hudson Sponsored By:
Exemplary Volunteer honoree is dedicated to serving community By MIKE BOLLINGER
F
rom being a volunteer fireman to his long-time involvement in Rotary International, Leigh Hudson has served his community for many years. “Being a volunteer fireman was how I first got involved in service,” Hudson said. “I was raised in my family’s hardware store in Garner that was in the same block as the fire department. As I got more involved in the business, I couldn’t leave any more to answer calls, so I left the fire department.” After leaving the fire department after 11 years, Hudson said he missed being of service to the community. He decided to join Rotary as a way to continue that service, and joined the Garner Rotary Club in 1981 before transferring his membership to the Clayton Rotary Club in 1986 when he opened a second hardware store in Clayton. He said being in business has shown him the need to help people. “In the hardware business, you have to help people. It’s something I can’t not do,” Hudson said. Hudson said he was originally attracted
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to Rotary by knowing some of the Garner club members and what they brought to service in the community. As a young business owner, he said he was able to learn from some of the other members. He has served as president of the Clayton club in 1989-90 and 2009-10. While president of the Clayton club, the club picked up the balloon festival that used to be held in Clayton and put that on for two years. At one point, the Clayton club was in danger of extinction before Hudson led the effort to rebuild it. It had dwindled to 19 members. “We were down to 19 old guys having dinners together,” he said. Under Hudson’s leadership, membership increased from 19 to 45 from 2008 to 2010. He also chartered a new Clayton Mid-Day club during that time. As a result of those efforts, he was asked to serve as a Rotary assistant governor in 2010 and was then governor of Rotary District 7710 in 2013. He followed that with five years as district membership chair, has served as PolioPlus chair and now chairs the district learning resources committee. He and his wife, Pug, are Rotary Foundation Level 3 Major
Donors, Bequest Society members and members of the Paul Harris Society. He has served as Zone 33 assistant Rotary coordinator and continues to learn and teach Rotary as a facilitator and board member and is currently the immediate past chair of the Mid-Atlantic Rotary Leadership Institute. He received the Rotary Foundation PolioPlus Regional Service Award in 2017 and the Rotary International Service Above Self Award in 2021. Hudson also was chairman of the Johnston County Drug Action Committee from 1990 to 2000. At first, he said he said he would attend a monthly meeting. His involvement quickly expanded from that, and he became part of an effort that took about 65 young people off the streets of Clayton and drastically reduced the drug problem there. Part of that effort was coordinating open gyms on Friday and Saturday nights. “I saw a need in the community, and I couldn’t walk away from it,” he said. For leading that effort, Hudson received the N.C. Governor’s Crime Prevention Award and the Clayton Chamber of
