More than a board member

WASILLA -- You probably know her as a Matanuska-Susitna Borough School Board member, but Sarah Welton is much more than a political figure elected to combat tough school district issues. Welton has a whole other side to her life, or, to be more accurate, many other sides to her life.

"I'm interested in so many things that I can go off on tangents for quite a while," Welton said. "I'm one of those people who has several projects going at one time, when I don't have something to do, I go looking for something."

Besides researching issues, visiting schools and sometimes taking four or five hours to answer school-related e-mails, Welton is a licensed professional counselor, an adjunct professor, an artist and an ordained associate pastor. And that's just her professional life.

"I always felt I was called to be a servant of the community," Welton said. "It does fill me with good feelings to be that person."

Welton moved to Alaska in 1983, and made Wasilla her home just three years later. She received her bachelor's degree at Linfield College in Oregon, and her master's at Alaska Pacific University. She worked for 10 years at Lifequest, now Behavioral Health Services, and for the past two years has owned and operated her own counseling service, Alpha Counseling and Education Services. She teaches at Mat-Su College, and spends much of her time researching issues that deal with her many areas of interest.

"I'm always reading three or four books at one time: One on mental health, one on religion, one for fun and one on education," said Welton, who spends her free time on Sunday afternoon reading the newspaper. "The hardest thing for me to do is to go into Anchorage and not go to Barnes and Noble."

Welton is mother to a son, a daughter and a foster daughter, and now she and her other half, Jerry, are foster grandparents to a Jack Russell Terrier named Sleater that their foster daughter left home. Their favorite thing to do is jump in the car and drive to places like Talkeetna. Welton said the three of them always take their time as they explore the state.

"We really love going to the mountain," Welton said. "We're never in a hurry."

Welton spends an average of 15 hours a week in counseling sessions at Alpha Counseling, and spends countless more hours in her office doing research and preparing for class. She came up with the name of the business because Alpha represents the beginning.

"It also deals with religion," said Welton, speaking of the reference as God being the Alpha-Omega.

Religion holds a special place in Welton's life; she became an ordained deacon at the Church of the Covenant, a small, local American Baptist Church, in 2002, and last year she was ordained an associate pastor.

"This really just means that I've been accepted as having a special gift," she said. "I feel a call. In my family it must be genetic."

Welton's great-grandfather, grandfather, father and daughter are all ministers. While the four of them all attended a seminary, Welton is quick to point out that she is only a locally appointed pastor, and did not attend a seminary.

"I can't call myself a minister and go to Washington," she said. Most of her duties at the church involve teaching and counseling, two things she says she truly enjoys.

"I love to teach, I really enjoy it," Welton said. "If I had listened to my guidance counselor, I should have been a teacher."

In the free time that she has, Welton has many hobbies and passions. She loves gardening, music, crochet, drawing and reading.

"I have a lot of hobbies on the back burner," she joked.

Welton also has a collection of more than 150 teddy bears.

"I started my collection when my children said they were getting rid of them. Last year I said, 'please, no more … I still got six,'" she said with a laugh.

Welton gets her hair done by Betty at Stan's, her favorite place to eat is Maxxie's Restaurant and she shops at Fred Meyer and Shoprite. She teaches anti-shoplifting and violence prevention classes for Youth Court, and is involved with Sunrise Rotary. If she had all the money in the world and could do anything she wanted, Welton said she'd be doing exactly what she's doing now, with a little more traveling thrown into the mix.

"Because I'm not working a regular full-time job, I'm permitted to do what I want," she said.

But even though she's doing what she wants, one has to wonder how she finds the time and energy to keep her plate so full. So the Frontiersman had to ask: How do you do it all?

"I actually do all the exercises I teach people on how to relax," she replied. "And I drink coffee, a lot of coffee."