Sarah Jackson said “yes” to helping with an area event to raise funds for cancer victims but didn’t truly know what she was getting herself into. A National Honor Society student and Maple Grove High School hockey team member, Jackson was looking to collect service hours. She had worked with fundraising chair Steffany Fleming on an event in the past and was happy to help again. Fleming asked Jackson to attach pins to ribbons to be worn by dancers raising money while dancing in honor of those fighting or who have lost their fight to cancer. The event, called Dancing to Make A Difference, involved dance studios in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.
Jackson was asked to put together 1,000 pins but was soon asking for more. She put together “pinning parties” and assembly lines of friends and hockey team members on breaks between tournaments. She made pins on the long car ride to relatives during the holidays and in each spare moment and ended up putting together more than 13,000 ribbons (ahead of schedule) for the event. Fleming says Jackson is a young person “making a difference in our community.”
