In Memoriam: Sarah Elizabeth Wright

Sarah Wright after receiving her PMF Pin for Outstanding Volunteer Service. Submitted.

by Sharon Grutzmacher, Peninsula Music Festival Executive Director

After 26 seasons as executive director of the Peninsula Music Festival, I have said goodbye to many long-time volunteers, donors, subscribers and board members. I have spoken at funerals, arranged memorial concerts and provided musicians for funerals. It is never easy to say goodbye to these amazing people who, in the course of supporting the organization they love, often become long-time friends.

Never has this been truer than my dear friend Sarah Wright. Hearing of her death on Oct. 12, 2017, should not have come as such a surprise. She was 95 and her health was declining. I knew she was in the hospital, yet somehow, I always thought she would be the one to cheat death. If you knew her, you know exactly what I mean.

Sarah didn’t just live life, she embraced it. Along with her great friends Marge Binder and Bibs McAghon, she made every day an adventure. Her obituary covered her achievements and her love of the Chicago Cubs, but her intense love and support of the Peninsula Music Festival was beyond anything I have ever experienced in all my years of nonprofit management.

Known at the Peninsula Music Festival by just their first names, Bibs, Marge and Sarah became synonymous with generosity and humor. They loved volunteering in the office, especially with big mailings. They would arrive, ready to work, full of the feistiness that was their calling card. Sarah, the driver, would bring up the rear holding a large bag of candy, often opened on the trip, mumbling about a large mouse in the car by the name of Marge who got hold of the candy. The stories would start and the mailing would become secondary. The stories grew grander each time they were told and Sarah was the one to keep Marge and Bibs honest. She’d call out the bull, fill in the forgotten details and sometimes just give up and wink at me.

Once, at the Piggly Wiggly, Sarah approached me asking if the office phone was broken. Answering no, she pulled a postcard the Festival had mailed to her from her pocket. We had done a mailing and they had not been called. I walked to my car, smiling with the thought of her carrying that postcard around, ready to approach me when she saw me next. Bibs, Marge and Sarah were called for every mailing from then on, no exceptions.

Sarah, Marge and Bibs sat in the left loge of the Door Community Auditorium for the Peninsula Music Festival concerts. They had a reserved parking space around the side of the DCA by the load-in door. After parking, Marge and Sarah (pushing Bibs in her wheel chair) would have to walk around to the front door to enter for the concerts.

A few years after I began working for the Peninsula Music Festival, I realized that I no longer saw the ladies entering the auditorium on concert nights, yet, upon checking, there they were, sitting in their seats enjoying the concerts. My head usher informed me that Sarah had approached the operations coordinator and given him a pebble. She told him to put the pebble in the side exit door right by their seats every concert night. They would then enter by that door and sit right down. The extra chair would be removed ahead of time to accommodate Bibs and her wheel chair. The head usher would come in to tear their tickets and my operations coordinator would remove the pebble, pull the door shut and save the pebble for the next concert. This procedure, as directed by Sarah, continued for all the years they attended the Peninsula Music Festival (PMF).

In April of 2016, the festival honored Sarah and Marge (Bibs had died a few years earlier) with the PMF Pin for Outstanding Volunteer Service. This is given annually at the second Tuesday during the August concert season. Knowing that Sarah and Marge would no longer be attending the concerts, we arranged a party and presentation to take place at Woodview in Scandia Village. PMF staff, board members and many previous pin recipients showed up to show appreciation for the many years of volunteer service, philanthropy and humor that was shared with the Peninsula Music Festival.

I miss seeing Bibs, Marge and Sarah sitting in their left loge seats as I welcome the audience each night. They always waved to me, gave me a thumbs-up and often yelled at me to speak up! I could never get away with anything with these women in my life.

Sarah will be honored at the Aug. 11, 2018, concert. Mahler’s “Adagietto from Symphony No. 5” will be played in her memory. The Festival hopes to plant a tree for Sarah at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church this August when the orchestra is in town. Hopefully it will serve as a reminder to all to give generously of yourself, live life to its fullest and keep laughing.