The Lady Is A Champ

Three girls with special needs were having lunch in the cafeteria when Sara Sherman walked over and joined them.

They smiled, then exchanged names.

LocalLinks "All of them were real happy that I sat with them," said Sara, a seventh-grade student at Sawgrass Springs Middle School. "To most kids, that wouldn't be cool. It's not something that most teenagers would want to do." Since that day, Sara spends her lunch break with these students. Sometimes she'll tell them stories about her weekend or share her cookies with them. They'll talk about boyfriends and other things girls their age are interested in. And their facial reactions speak volumes about their gratitude, says Sara, of Coral Springs.

"You can just tell by looking at them that they are just happy that you're there," she said.

Some mornings she meets them at the bus loop and walks them to classes.

Sara's caring spirit dates back to the first day of school, when she greeted the students' class with a warm and cheerful smile and acceptance they do not always receive, said Karen Baker, who teaches the specialized varying exceptionalities class.

All of Baker's students have special needs and at times display social behaviors that are below their age level, she said. Still, Sara accepts them, shares stories with them and teaches them social skills by simply being herself, Baker said.

"I always have fun when I am with them," said Sara, 12, who recently was named a South Florida Sun-Sentinel Kid of Character for kindness in a program that recognizes students in the Broward County school system. "I don't act like they're 2-year-olds. I just act normal. I see them as normal people." In her free time, the aspiring pediatrician enjoys watching television and participating in the school's critter club, which teaches students about animals. She also participated in an annual Broward beach cleanup last year.

Mark Sherman calls his daughter's actions "wonderful." He, however, was not surprised.

"This is a natural thing for Sara," he said. "Sara was exposed to these kids and saw past the physical into their souls and she saw that they are wonderful." He recalls as a child, riding 2 � hours with his parents six nights each week to visit his 16-year-old brother who was in a rehabilitation hospital in California after a motorcycle crash.

"There were people we encountered with no arms and no legs and we had to lift them up and help them," said Sherman, who, as a young adult, worked with the developmentally disabled and later with the Peace Corps. "At that time, we were just 6 and 7 but we learned that you really have to look beyond the physical into the soul of a person." Sherman thinks something he said or did may have instilled such values in his daughter.

Sara showed kindness at the end of last year when she encouraged her dad to sponsor a party for the kids. She also urged him to buy a stack of Pokemon cards for a boy who walked around on campus with an old, tattered card all year.

"The day that I gave him those cards, he trembled," Sherman said. "He was so excited. It was unbelievable." Quoting poet Leah Becks' The Star Polisher, Baker said, "I have the best job in the galaxy, for I am a star polisher.

"In this day of far too little tolerance and acceptance, Sara stands out as a bright shining star among a galaxy of stars."

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