John Scarffe, Nederland. Gilpin County resident Sara Sandstrom has been part of the greater Nederland community for almost 15 years. She has been teaching at the Nederland Community Presbyterian Church since 2016 and at the Nederland Elementary School since 2018. Sara joined The Mountain-Ear staff in 2017 and during the past three plus years has served as an editor, reporter and photographer.

Born in rural southern Indiana, surrounded by fields of watermelons, she is the youngest of two daughters. Her parent’s professions have been a crucial part of her identity. Her dad, John, is a Lutheran pastor and her mom, Laura, a teacher. Sara grew up in the very small town of Cresbard in northeastern South Dakota. The population may have reached 200 counting cats and dogs. Riding bikes with her sister and friends around town and playing Little House on the Prairie in the backyard fields was a wonderful way to spend a childhood. 

While in middle school her family moved to Rice Lake, Wisconsin. While in high school there she excelled in the music and forensic programs. She attended Concordia University, St. Paul, Minnesota, and played in the concert and jazz bands. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education Social Studies with a concentration in history and religion.

Sara traveled to Europe a couple of times as a teenager and fell in love with the cultures. 

“When I was 16, my parents sent me on a tour with the Lutheran Church going to East Germany and Poland in 1990, and this part of the world was drastically changing at the time,” Sara said. 

“I still get shivers of excitement remembering paying an East German man a few Marks to use his hammer to help tear down the Berlin Wall. The majority of the wall was still up then but no more guards.

 “I stayed with an East German couple in Berlin and a family in rural Poland. The experience changed the trajectory of my life. If seeing Medieval castles and eating Polish sausage on the side of the road wasn’t enough culture, we visited Auschwitz. 

“The emotions I felt at 16 years old being in a former Nazi death camp were profound. Years later, I would visit Auschwitz again as an adult. I visited the main camp and then walked along the train tracks to Birkenau, the extermination camp part of Auschwitz. 

“Learning about the horrors of what humans can do to each other changed the way I saw the world and what I would teach in the classroom. Sometimes I wonder what led my parents to allow me and encourage me to go to Europe for a few weeks in the summer of 1990.”

After graduating from college, she moved to Central Europe to teach at a high school in a small town in Central Slovakia. The school started during the Reformation in the 1500’s. 

The winds of history brought a lot of change to the Slovak people and the school, Sara said. “After Communism fell out of complete power in the country, the school was given new life. 

“The Evanjelicke Gymnazium of Tisovec was about to flourish again. It was an honor of a lifetime to be one of the first teachers from the United States to teach at this school. They stressed learning English and students came from all over the country to learn,” Sara said.

“I pinched myself almost every day reminding myself where I was and what I was doing. I felt like I was walking in a National Geographic magazine every day. 

“This might sound very glamorous, but it was a huge challenge as well. I knew two words of the Slovak language when the airplane landed in Kosice.” 

As a first-year teacher, Sara was preparing for seven different classes. They had very little Internet in 1996 and no textbooks for the history classes. 

As challenging as it was to learn the monetary system and the transportation system and getting a VISA, the students and their families, and the fresh bread every day, made it all worth it. “Being invited to a student’s home over a weekend and experiencing their hospitality with the traditional Slovak foods of halusky, gulash and the conversation was priceless. I would sit at a table talking to parents and grandparents, with the younger generation translating, about World War II and what life was like only a few years earlier under Soviet Communism, and what their struggles and government is like today, now that they are no longer in Czechoslovakia.”

After teaching in Slovakia, Sara lived one of her dreams and moved to Prague, Czech Republic, for a semester and attended the Univerzita Karlova (Charles University). She also taught an English conversation class at the university. 

“I studied Czechoslovak history, politics, architecture, economics and Czech language. I took as many classes as I could,” Sara said. 

The classes were mostly taught by British professors who had lived in Prague for several years and Czech professors who were once known as enemies of the state. “They were dissidents who spoke about how they were treated under Soviet control and how they resisted no matter the consequences. Their passion and love for human rights was awe-inspiring,” Sara said.

“I came back to the United States with a completely new view of the world and the United States,” Sara said. She then taught and lived in Houston, Texas, and Matthews, North Carolina, before moving to Colorado to teach and attend the University of Colorado for a master’s degree in Social, Multicultural and Linguistically Diverse Education. 

“I loved living in Boulder and Leadville,” Sara said. Then the Nederland area seemed the place to be as marriage and children entered her life. 

“My international travels will always be part of my identity but being a parent of loss twice has left an unimaginable mark on my soul -- one of great sorrow and great pain that can be experienced in the world, and one of great empathy,” Sara said. “Through all I have been through with loss and struggles with my own health, I firmly believe I have a purpose on this earth every day,” Sara said. 

Sara said her parents and sister gave her a solid foundation in life and continue to do so today. “I see every day as a gift because I know what it is like to realize that your time on earth might be done.”

As editor of The Mountain-Ear, Sara has been a leader for the newspaper by editing all of the copy and proofs for each edition. As a reporter and photographer, she covers Nederland school news as well as community events, obituaries and assisting in covering disasters such as fires. 

Sara said that when she applied with The Mountain-Ear, she really didn’t think she would be called for an interview. “I had been a stay-at-home mom for a number of years and was getting desperate for a little income and work besides being a mom to balance my life out a bit more. Barbara Hardt and John Scarffe with The Mountain-Ear took a chance on someone with no formal journalism education or training. 

“Working for The Mountain-Ear has been a very unexpected path in my life. It has challenged me beyond anything I could have imagined, in professional and personal ways,” Sara said. “From the very late-night emails asking if I have a photo or a short story to fill a space, and it needs to be done an hour ago, to seeing a mistake when the newspaper arrives in my mailbox has often had me wondering why I like it so much. 

“I enjoy having my kids along on this journey. They like to learn how to use a camera and take an interest in writing.”

Sara said when she started working with The Mountain-Ear staff, she was simply editing some stories. With Barb’s urging, she started writing a little here and a little there. 

“Now I find myself interviewing amazing people in our community and sharing their stories. That is my favorite part about the paper -- sharing someone’s story and how their lives have made this community and the world richer.

“History is a passion of mine and sharing some of the historical stories of our past I hope helps us all be a little less ignorant, a little more grateful and acknowledge the shoulders we are standing on. Having institutional knowledge about schools I started writing about our school district and Nederland schools,” Sara said. 

“I love writing about our students from Kindergarteners to the graduating seniors and show the community what amazing kids we have and help the community and schools connect to each other.

“I believe a local newspaper exists to educate and help bring identity to a community. Having a local newspaper helps to keep local governments and organizations honest. Original local reporting is a mirror of sorts for the community,” Sara said.

“I love teaching at Nederland Elementary. The students I work with are amazing as they successfully navigate the world in a language that is not their first. Writing and working with The Mountain-Ear constantly pulls me out of my comfort zone and each issue brings a sense of accomplishment,” Sara said. “I enjoy working at Nederland Community Presbyterian Church. The people are warm and welcoming. As I look at my future goals and dreams, I want to be a part of bringing more equality and social justice to our country. No matter where life takes me, I hope my greatest contribution to the universe is being a nurturing and wise mother. Being a mom is my greatest challenge and greatest joy.”  

(Originally published in the January 28, 2021, edition of The Mountain-Ear.)