Exemplary Volunteer, Sara Perricone

VOLUNTEERISM IS SECOND NATURE TO CLAYTON RESIDENT

By Randy Capps

The idea of volunteerism usually gets more thought and attention from the organizations and communities that benefit from it than from the ones actually giving their time and energy.

So while various groups and entities in Clayton benefit from Sara Perricone's tireless work, she doesn't really think about it too much.

“It's something I've never even thought about,” she said. “When we were growing up, my parents, if there was a family member that needed taking care of, they were brought into our home. It was grandparents, aunt, whomever. … We all just took care of them. My mother did a lot of different things and my sisters, I was the youngest of four, always did some volunteer work.

“So, I just think it was just habit. I saw something taking place, and I just did it. I didn't think about it. When I started volunteering in Michigan and then down here, it was just second nature.”

It's that giving spirit that has earned her the 2019 Johnston Now Honors Exemplary Volunteer award.

Perricone and her husband, Jim, moved to Clayton 13 years ago from Michigan, and as one might expect, weather was a factor.

“We loved Michigan, but it's seven months of snow and four-wheel drive,” she said. “We came down here around Thanksgiving, and on Thanksgiving Day, it was 70 degrees. I said, 'well, it's got my vote.' … We ended up down here, and boy, were we lucky.”

She was honored as the 2018 Clayton Chamber of Commerce Volunteer of the Year, and a look at her efforts in that community provides plenty of reasons why.

Near the top of the list is the Clayton Women in Networking group. Clayton WIN “was created to give the women members of the Clayton business community an outlet for ingenuity and philanthropy” and is a force for charitable work in the area.

Or, put more simply, Perricone saw a need and worked to fill it.

“There were a lot of wonderful groups of women, but there was nothing for women in business,” she said. “I decided to start something to deal with that.”

So, she wrote up some bylaws and, with some help from Sarah Martin, put together a board to get the group off the ground in April 2012.

“I'm excited about that, because it has really been a force on its own,” she said. “That is something that has helped many women, and it did satisfy what was needed. That's the best part.”

Another need that struck her was the lack of outlets for veterans to tell their stories. Working alongside Mike Stojic, A Soldier's Story was born.

“We decided that it would be interesting if we could talk to veterans about what they really experienced,” she said. “You can read all kinds of stories. You can read editorials, you can read all kinds of things about World War II and so forth, but we wanted the personal aspect of it. So, we started with World War II, then we moved on to the Korean War and went from there.”

It's an ongoing venture, with an eye toward including the recordings in a potential Clayton Veterans Memorial or perhaps for use in schools as part of an oral history for students.

Shaping the community's interest in the arts is another passion for Perricone, and it's how she got involved with the Clayton Arts Advisory Board.

“When I was at the chamber, I was asked to participate in choosing sculptures for the Town,” she said. “Well, my background is in art. I (studied) art and marketing in college, so I really liked what they were doing there.”

She joined the board, and now serves as its chairperson. One of the board's most noteworthy efforts was the Before I Die project, which featured a cube in Horne Square where people could share their hopes and dreams with a little chalk and some creativity.

“One young man used it to propose to his girlfriend,” she said. “That was fun.”

She also helped establish an annual 5K and Festival of Trees to benefit Donate Life NC, a charity that raises awareness for the importance of organ donation.

These are just a few of the ways that Perricone has impacted her community, but if you ask her, serving others has given just as much back to her in return.

“There's always a need,” she said. “I love the people. The best people are volunteers, and you really do have a good time. Part of it is selfish, too, because it's so much fun to work on these things. And you see an end result right away. Not all things have that, and that's the thing that excites me.

“It's not really work. What we raised for Donate Life, working on the Harvest Festival and now the Christmas parade and watching the kids and the families get excited. I mean, how do you put a price on that?”