A Life of Building John Sawyer is still helping youth and businesses
John and Jackie Sawyer have gone to bat together on a long list of community projects. Photo by Brett Kosmider.
by Craig Sterett
E
ntrepreneurs talk about “giving back” to the community. But John Sawyer doesn’t need to talk: He’s all action.
Sawyer has spent most of his days building homes, launching businesses and helping others to attain their dreams, but he’s also made time to teach sports to children, coach high schoolers and develop youth programs. The Egg Harbor resident became a public servant for the benefit of young people almost immediately after graduating from college, and so did his wife, Jackie.
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There were times when both of them missed their own kids’ games because they had other teams to coach. “I actually started the youth football program before I had a son,” John said. “It was all about the kids – never just for our children.” Years prior to coaching high school students, Sawyer took leadership roles in local baseball organizations and helped to establish youth football and youth softball in Northern Door. At the time, the varsity girls – other than a few who played Little League baseball – joined high school teams with no experience at all. At the first youth softball practice he held, eight girls showed up without gloves.
“We create the opportunity for kids to play,” Sawyer said. “It isn’t about them playing in high school. It isn’t about them becoming a college or Major League player. It’s learning to love the sport, and if they enjoy going to a ball game later in life and just enjoy the sport, that’s sort of the goal.” As John reached retirement age this past winter, Jackie said he was starting to cut back. But John’s version of “doing less” still might seem incredibly hectic to his peers from Gibraltar High School’s Class of 1976. He was still calling on clients early this winter, for example, as a consultant for Carlson Erickson Builders, which he sold four years ago and helped to run
