Sheila Sowers may be retired, but she still has a busy schedule.
Her dedication to her volunteer work earned her the distinction as a 2024 Journal Review Shining Star.
Sowers is a teacher’s aide at Mollie B. Hoover Elementary five days a week. She always wanted to be a teacher and was originally enrolled at Ball State University to become one, but when she married she decided to follow her husband’s path of not pursuing a college career.
She added her parents also didn’t encourage her to go to college.
“We didn’t give our kids a choice, you’re going to college,” Sowers said.
Sowers worked in factories and as a supply specialist at Valero in Linden for 12 years before retirement.
She has two children and two grandchildren.
A couple years after retirement, she found her gateway to teaching when one of her friends asked her to help out as an aide in Sunday school classes at Rock Point Church.
As her children are older and her grandchildren now adults, Sowers had a lot more time on her hands.
“I just felt like I needed to do something,” she said and became a substitute teacher.
The next thing she knew, she was working nearly full-time. She hosts reading groups with students throughout the school day and also visits different classrooms to help with math.
Sowers said it isn’t always easy being a teacher’s aide, students can be difficult. Some days, a student can be having a rough time and they don’t always know how to control their emotions. She said it takes a lot of patience, and that while that student may be combative one day, they’ll come in the next asking for a hug.
“You kind of, at times you go from, okay, I can’t do it anymore, to, okay, that’s why I’m here,” Sowers said. “Our kids need consistency. Our kids need love. Our kids, at times, need someone to listen.”
Sowers believes all of the staff at Mollie B. Hoover Elementary deserves a Shining Star award.
“Everybody in this school, we’re all working for the same thing, to better our kids. Every one of us, every teacher, every aide, we’re all needed,” she said.
Sowers also is a Court Appointed Special Advocate.
She said the court appoints an attorney to help parents in family matters, but not the children. That’s where CASA steps in.
“We are the voice for the kids,” Sowers said.
This is an even harder challenge for Sowers, seeing children it difficult and troublesome situations at home. She gets emotional talking about the children she advocates for.
On hard days, when she is overwhelmed and feeling helpless, she looks to her faith.
“I pray a lot,” Sowers said. She keeps a small statue of Jesus in her office to remind her of her faith and to keep her grounded.
Sowers doesn’t only help children, she also dedicates every other Thursday afternoon to the Women’s Resource Center and is part of Through the Gate.
Through the Gate is an organization that helps women battling addiction and in recovery. She says that she can help women in the organization in many different ways.
“I go stay with the girls. We might watch movies. We might just talk,” Sowers said. She can also get them their medicine if they need help with that.
While she may have a lot on her plate, she still finds time to socialize with her friends and even watch her favorite true crime shows. She meets up with friends at Arni’s to play Bid Euchre for hours when she gets the chance.
Sowers doesn’t see herself as busy though. With being divorced and her children and grandchildren getting older, she sees herself just living her life to the fullest and with meaning.
