Ashe named Citizen of the Year

Sarah Ashe accepted the Citizen of the Year award from John Nichols, who was named the 2010 chamber president at the event. She would prefer to quietly help children with special needs and their families without the recognition.

But Sarah Ashe couldn’t escape the limelight last Thursday at the Burke County Chamber of Commerce annual meeting.

Ashe was named Citizen of the Year for her tireless devotion to helping children in Burke and neighboring counties.

On a daily basis, Ashe works with moderately to severely disabled children in local public schools. But Ashe extended her reach even beyond the school system when she started the non-profit Center for New Beginnings in 2005.

What began as an ambitious endeavor in a single room at First Baptist Church has devel- oped into a well-respected center staffed by therapists, counselors and volunteers who currently serve more than 60 children and their families.

The center continues to grow as more and more families in the rural counties south of Augusta discover the resources and care available for their children here. Ashe and her team are now looking for a larger space to house the center and provide their valuable services.

Ashe supervises the center’s programs, collaborates with providers, helps develop individualized plans and works with many of the children served there, many of whom are affected by autism and related conditions. She accepts no pay for her work there and writes grant proposals for

funding to keep the effort alive.

Her contributions have not gone unnoticed by professionals in this area and across the state. In 2008, the Georgia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics selected Ashe as the early intervention teacher and advocate of the year.

Ashe said that her life’s work is what she has been called to do and refuses credit for what has been accomplished through her years of commitment to children in this community and beyond.