Weekly Hero - Sarah Jane

We traveled (via Zoom) all the way to Fort Wayne, Indiana for this weeks hero. Sarah Jane is a long time friend of my husbands (who is from Indiana) and I’ve always thought that she is pretty amazing! She just sets her mind to something and does it. She is also the mother of 4 children, 13 and under, so when Covid19 hit, her world was turned a bit upside down. But Sarah’s never been one to let things drag her down. She did her research, made sure to keep her family safe by staying isolated and made masks for everyone. She hadn’t sewn in 5 years but decided this was the time to pick it up again and sewed over 150 masks for friends and family (my husband and I included).

Sarah Jane has also been reading and learning about anti-racism over the past few years and she realized she wasn’t actually DOING enough. She looked for people in the community already doing good work and showed up to help.

She and her family began volunteering distributing food to under-resourced people/neighborhoods with the Human Agricultural Co-op. The groups focus is to “educate, train and feed the youth and the community by teaching them basic gardening and farming techniques and distributing food and supplies.”

Her oldest son, Cash, has even started working for the Youth Farming program with the Human Agricultural Co-op! Not only will he be learning how to farm, but he will be learning about the history of being a black farmer (98% of farms in the U.S. are white owned) and their movement to re-own land.

One of the reasons I wanted to include Sarah Jane as a “Weekly Hero” was because of her drive to insure that her kids are growing up to be good and well rounded human beings! When Sarah Jane decided to take on the role of a “fundraiser” for the Family and Friends Fund for Southeast Fort Wayne (a project to try to raise $1 million to invest in the once redlined Southeast quadrant), her daughter, Story, and her friends, also got involved by making and selling friendship bracelets, with all of the proceeds going to the Family and Friends fund. Sarah raised over $2500.00 to contribute and Story and friends brought in over $200.00 for their bracelets so far!

Who knows what Sarah Jane’s next step will be! City Council member?