Spirit of Mission: Sara Alleman and the Power of Saying Yes

On Monday, May 4, United Methodist Women of Highland Park United Methodist Church presented Sara Alleman with the 2026 Spirit of Mission: The Georgia Bates Award at the 11th annual Georgia Bates Award Luncheon.

A simple “yes” led to 20 years of service for Sara Alleman.

For more than two decades, Sara organized and coordinated group-provided meals at Austin Street Center. On Monday, May 4, she was honored with the Spirit of Mission: The Georgia Bates Award.

It all started when Rev. Eric Folkerth became HPUMC’s Mission and Outreach pastor and needed a coordinator.

“We approached Sara to see if she would do that, and I was very grateful that she said yes,” Rev. Folkerth said.

That phone call all those years ago ultimately led to another one. This time, letting Sara know she was this year’s award winner.

“When I received the phone call that I had been selected for this award, I was without words; I could not think of them,” Sara said. “But then I started thinking about our Sunday School class. Eric Folkerth called and said, ‘Do you want to be in charge of this for the whole year and finding the groups?’ Usually, when a minister asks you to do something like that, you do it. And I felt very honored.”

Sara and her husband, Marty, didn’t just show up once a month to serve hot dogs at Austin Street. There was more to it than that. They had to plan, buy the food, organize the volunteers that were going to serve, get it to Austin Street, and set it up.

Then they would start the process of doing it all over again.

“People who don't go to this church or are not familiar with Austin Street ask me, ‘Why do you want to do this?’” Sara said. “I want to do it because we can. Our church can do it. We don't have to match anyone else's promise or anything else. We can do it.”

It wasn’t the first time Sara answered the call to help serve others through HPUMC.

Bill Fancher, who was part of the Fellowship Class with Sara, worked with Sara on Carpenters for Christ and served meals for Jesters—now Spotlight Academy of the Arts—as well as Austin Street Center.

“We did, probably 14,000 or 15,000 hot dogs just in Fellowship Class events over that period of time,” Fancher said. “And if my math is right, and I’ve checked it twice, for 20 years they would have done close to 150,000 dogs.”

What HPUMC congregant Lauri Warner remembers most about serving with Sara is the way she treated everyone. There was compassion and love for those she was serving. There was attention to detail and making sure all the volunteers had what they needed, and the joy she had while doing it was evident.

“One thing I really want Sara to know is the impact that she’s had on so many of us,” Lauri said. “The lessons she’s taught us. The lessons of sacrifice and compassion and mercy she truly has, for me, redefined the word 'neighbor.'"

In 1939, HPUMC partnered with the Visiting Nurses Association to fund the annual salary of Georgia Bates, a missionary nurse in West Dallas. In return, Bates provided weekly updates on the needs she saw, her ministry, and the impact in West Dallas until her retirement in 1973.

The award bearing her name honors her spirit, vision, and commitment to serving others with love and compassion while loving our neighbors as ourselves.

More than 50 years later, Sara Alleman has embodied that same spirit through her faithful service to her neighbors at Austin Street Center and the people of Dallas.

“Sara Alleman is a fitting recipient for this award in recognition of her life as a humble servant of God and others,” HPUMC Senior Minister Rev. Matt Tuggle said. “Through Project Mockingbird, we're committing 100,000 volunteer hours a year to the city of Dallas. It's an ambitious goal, but with a small handful of ‘Sara Allemans,’ we’ll blow through a goal like that in a quarter.”

It wasn’t just Sara’s willingness to say yes that made her special, although that is where it starts. It’s that once Sara said yes, she went to work. She recruited volunteers, raised support, and found ways to make it work week after week, year after year.

But when it came down to it, she was also the one rolling up her sleeves and going to work.

“Sara's one of those people who doesn't wait around for somebody else to do something, but she does it herself,” Rev. Tuggle said. “She figures out how to get it done, and then she puts not only herself but others to work. She took on a job that would have been overwhelming for most people. She organized it, she calculated, she problem-solved, and she juggled all of the scheduling that went into serving meals at Austin Street.”

Plenty has changed since Sara first said yes.

As the story goes, in the beginning, she would be stirring the hot dogs as they boiled in one hand with one of her sons, Ryan, on her hip in the other. Sara’s other son, Drew, remembers the first time he went to Austin Street.

“The first time I ever got to go into the facility, I remember it being larger than life,” Drew said. “It’s a massive feat to cook for 400-500 people, and comprehending what they had done, I had seen the back end of it, but to see the front end was truly incredible and showed what they accomplished.”

All those years ago, Sara Alleman simply said yes and then served for over 20 years.

HPUMC and Dallas as a whole are better off because she did.

“It’s the stuff that she does that nobody has to think about because she gets it done,” Fellowship Class member George Whitmeyer said. “Congratulations on this award. I can't think of anybody more deserving. You've done a great job for so many years. We love you.”

Spirit of Mission: Sara Alleman and the Power of Saying Yes

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