Sara: Traverse City’s Energizer Bunny For Good

This story was first published in the Traverse City Record-Eagle

Her trail name on the Appalachian was Energizer. Like the Energizer Bunny. If you’re lucky enough to know my friend, Sara, you’ll understand how perfect of a nickname this is.

She’s tireless.

At 70 years young, Sara is undoubtedly one of our silent sport matriarchs in northern Michigan. She skis, she bikes, she paddles, and she hikes. Full gas. Every day. But it wasn’t always this way.

Born and raised in Dallas, Sara is part of the Cockrell family with deep roots in Texas’ third-largest city. She attended Armstrong Elementary in the Highland Park neighborhood. Sara then got an education degree from Southern Methodist University, a library science degree from East Texas State University, and an MBA from the Unversity of North Texas. She was a great student. “I studied, and I worked.” In her first 35 years of life, Sara wasn’t that active.

That changed after she moved to Traverse City in 1986. She came north to help run a few businesses and quickly fell in love with the natural beauty of northern Michigan. It started with a short seven-mile bike ride in 1993 with the Cherry Capital Cycling Club. This Texas girl then learned to nordic ski. And then to canoe. It was game on. At 42 years old, Sara started to go.

Sara quickly transformed into a ski and canoe racing machine. And by machine, I mean competing 30 weekends a year. She raced twelve weekends on the snow and the rest on the water. She kept going.

When she retired in 2005, she also retired from racing. She wanted to travel more. To see the world. Sara started hiking. She has climbed mountains in Switzerland and Italy and segment hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2007 as Energizer. She kept going.

Over the past five years, Sara has continued to go but at a slightly less frenetic pace. She still loves her two-a-days, like a ski in the morning and then winter hike in the afternoon, but she’s now more focused on giving back. She’s determined to provide opportunities for kids to learn to move more outside. Her passion now is the Vasa Ski Club’s Nordic Rocks program.

Originally from Wisconsin, Nordic Rocks is a school-based program that uses simple skis to introduce elementary students to cross country skiing.

The Vasa Ski Club brought it here in 2017 with 100 pairs of skis.

Thanks to many people, Nordic Rocks has grown to impact hundreds of kids across many of Traverse City’s elementary schools, including Blair, Willow Hill, Eastern, Silver Lake, and Long Lake.

I watched Sara in action at Cherry Knoll last week with two classes of Wild Cats on Nordic Rock skis during their fourth grade PE class. With support from Vasa Ski Club members Marc Frick and Cindy Smith, and teacher, Juliana Forlenza, 40 kids glided under a gloriously sunny winter ski. Sara was right there beside them, coaching technique and offering encouragement. She keeps going.

We’re so lucky to live in a winter wonderland with some of the finest nordic trails in the midwest. And I love that Sara and her team are enhancing winter for our kids — that she’s still going with them.

Sara’s dream is to grow Nord Rocks. She wants to reach more students at more schools to give more kids a taste of the magic that comes with being in our forests on two skis in the winter. She wants to improve lives.

Sara is a terrific role model and positive mentor for our kids; I’m grateful for that.

Keep going, Sara.

And thank you.