ELMHURST — Linda Gatti has been the secretary at St. Adalbert Church in Elmhurst, Queens, for 24 years.
She is also in charge of the bulletin and the church website, making sure parishioners are kept up to date on everything happening in the parish.
“You have to wear different hats,” Gatti said. “I’m secretary to all the Friars here, whatever they need, parish records, parish masses have to be taken in, the record books have to be kept up.”
Gatti has been a parishioner herself at the church for the last 40 years and says she enjoys her job.
“It’s a family, the Franciscan friars are more like family to you,” Gatti said. “They’re down to earth. They help you with anything. The parish, the people, you come to Sunday Mass and it’s like you know everybody and everybody knows about you and they ask you about this and that.”
Gatti also volunteers as one of the directors of the church-sponsored camp. She starts planning for it in February, but says seeing the kids smiling and having fun makes all of the work worth it.
“I am really blessed to have such a dedicated person who helps us on a daily basis, sometimes on the weekends in the summer months,” Father Miroslav Podymniak, pastor of St. Adalbert Church, said. “So we are really blessed with Linda.” Father Podymniak or Father Mirek, as he’s known, calls Gatti his right hand.
For Gatti, she’s just living out her faith.
“It comes down to giving back. The more you give, the more you get, the more you give the more satisfied you are, and it keeps you happy inside,” she said.
Linda Gatti, of St. Adalbert Church is The Pulse Of The Parish.