Sara Roberts

Founder and President of the Randy Roberts Foundation

Story by Cheryl Johnston | Photos courtesy of Rhissa Parker

Sara Roberts is smart, strong, and sincere. She believes in giving back, helping others, and pointing the way. Together she and her late husband Randy were a team.

Two years ago Randy Roberts, the lobbyist for Publix, died suddenly at age 36 of a heart aneurysm while at home preparing for a morning run. In an instant, the world was turned upside down for Sara and their two young children, Charlotte and Samuel, then 6 and 2 1/2. But with support and encouragement from some amazing friends, Sara knew that she must continue the mission that drove Randy – the mission to challenge young adults to be civically engaged and to be a positive force in their own communities.

Within two weeks, plans were underway to establish the Randy Roberts Foundation. Within three months, the Foundation had presented scholarships to its first high school senior. In the 2010-2011 school year, three more seniors received scholarships.

We interviewed Sara recently for an update on her world without Randy and what the Foundation has planned for the future. Read on to meet a remarkable young woman and mother who, through example, is teaching her children what Randy would have wanted – to persevere.

Focus: Thank you, Sara, for your willingness to share about your life with Randy and about the Foundation’s work. For those who didn’t know him, tell us a little about the man he was.

Roberts: Randy was a gregarious giver. He loved to tell jokes and stories and knew how to really draw people into relationship. In conversations, he always asked the next question. He wanted to know the whole person. When people first met Randy, they either liked him or they didn’t, but ultimately he could win them over. As he aged, this was just such a gift. He could make a person feel like they were the only one in the room. He was larger than life – warm, caring, and loving. He loved his family and his many friends and he loved to have a good time.

Focus: How did he die, Sara?

Roberts:He had just had a physical with a good report that week. He got up to go running and collapsed. He died at Lakeland Regional of a heart aneurysm – it’s rare – a vessel that just burst. Our world changed that day, but our very deep faith, family and friends have carried us through.

Focus: So what is family life now, without him?

Roberts:We’re very open and talk a lot about him, but the hardest thing is his physically not being here. The children and I pray together every morning on the way to school, an idea I copied from one of my dear neighbor friends. We take turns and we always bless ‘Daddy.’ Sometimes we say ‘I just wish I could tell him…’ and we speak it out.

Two weeks after Randy died, our daughter Charlotte said, ‘We’re not a family anymore.’ After choking back tears, I had to explain, ‘You know babe, just because he’s not physically here with us doesn’t’ mean we’re not a family.’

The hard things come in the day-to-day. Perhaps it was a blessing that Randy traveled so much with his lobbying work for Publix, because we were used to him being gone during the week, so the children’s daily life hasn’t changed much. We live in Beacon Hill – a wonderful neighborhood – it’s a throwback to the ‘50s where neighbors make big circles around each other’s families. Also, we have the most incredible friends and church family. They’ve been there beyond words.

I have recently ratcheted back on some of my involvements because a friend said, ‘Your own kids need a mom.’ I can very easily overdo. I’m Charlotte’s Brownie Troop leader and Samuel played YMCA youth football for the first time this year. We go to Gator games and Disney, and the Sunday Night SPLASH program at church. We like to have people over, too. Their dad was their best cheerleader, so now my brothers and many other close friends help play that role.

We have always been very open with the children. They learned the way the world works very early and I don’t know any other way. Seeing daddies with their children is hard, but the Bethany Center has been a tremendous help to the three of us. They have a remarkable hospice therapy program for children and we’ve all had counseling. We’re doing OK – different, but OK.

Focus: You spoke of your faith, Sara. Can you explain a little more how that has helped you and the children?

Roberts:Here’s how I know that Randy and I were doing something right with our children. When I asked Charlotte before this interview what I should say about her Daddy, she said: ‘First you should say he’s a Christian.’

Our faith is a huge part of our lives, as it was Randy’s. I was raised in mine and Randy came to his as an adult. We have a great church family at First United Methodist Church of Lakeland and I attend Bible Study Fellowship weekly. The year Randy died, the study was Moses. Samuel went with me to study in his age group. I will never forget how my discussion leader, Beth Bagwell, came to my home that Sunday and placed Scripture on green post it notes all over my house, even in some obscure places, so that I would find them and be encouraged. Most of our friends have a strong faith, too. What a difference that makes in the depth of friendships.

Before Randy died, we never allowed the children to say, ‘That’s not fair.’ But it’s OK for them to say that about losing their Daddy. My children know that many children have it much worse. I believe the Holy Spirit led me to instruct them, ‘We will not be bitter. We can be sad and cry, but we will not blame God.’ Then I explained that time and perspective are different in heaven, and even if their daddy did have the option to return to us, he might not, because he sees an even bigger picture now.

What I do know is that our church and our faith carries us. It was a big part of who we were before Randy went to heaven, and it continues to be.

Focus: Please give us a little background that led you and Randy to public relations work.

Roberts:Randy graduated from Miramar High School and in 1995 from the University of Florida School of Journalism with a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Relations. His mother is an attorney in Orlando and his dad was a lobbyist. While in high school, Randy was the first student advisor elected to the Broward County School Board by students throughout the county. He was engaged in civic service because his parents were and his dad was active in the democratic process. Randy was part of Leadership Florida and loved working in the spring and summer as a Main Street cast member at Disney. We laughed about his ‘Ductorate’ degree at his funeral. Disney gave him a good basis to begin corporate work. When he joined the Carlman Booker firm in Orlando, he handled accounts for Kennedy Space Center, Winn-Dixie, the LYMMO part of the LYNX public transport system and BellSouth Mobility.

I’m from Haines City and graduated from Davenport High School. My parents are both Davenport city council members and my father is the current mayor. I graduated in 1993 from Florida Southern College with a B.A. in Mass Communications with Advertising/PR emphasis. I interned with and later worked for the Lakeland Regional Medical Center Foundation, which got me into the non-profit realm. I worked also with YMCA Central Florida and was then hired by Best Buddies, which was only a college program then, to establish their high school program. In 1996 I became the state director for that work in Florida.

I recruited Randy to serve on the board of Best Buddies where I’d worked for 11 years after another staffer, David Quillen, introduced us. We realized very quickly that this was it, that we would be married. In the old fashioned way, he had asked my parents for their permission to marry me weeks before he asked me in the parking lot at Ft. Wilderness at Disney. And if we had the time, I could tell you story after story of how funny and engaging he was. Music was very big for us – he loved Sinatra especially – and we had a great repartee during our almost ten years of marriage.

I tell people that Randy and I were privileged in opportunity, not necessarily materially. We had opportunities for civic engagement and both were privy to how things worked, how they ran. Both of my grandmothers were poll workers. We were just raised with the expectation that you would be involved and give back.

Focus: How did Randy come to be a lobbyist for Publix?

Roberts:He was hired in 2003 and worked for Clayton Hollis, who is one of the most amazing people to walk the face of the earth. He’s sincere, kind, and smart and was such a mentor to Randy about being a father, husband, and Christian. Randy adored Clayton Hollis.

Publix only has one lobbyist, so Randy handled all five states (FL, GA, SC, AL, TN). His gift was that he could find a way to make people agree with him eventually and do that in a sincere manner. He had very high standards and he could not lie. It wasn’t in him. And he cared very much about Florida and America.

Focus: So tell us about the Randy Roberts Foundation.

Roberts:The RRF mission is to work to cultivate Florida’s future leaders through providing public service initiatives, civic engagement opportunities, and allocating resources to students who excel in these areas. Our vision is to cultivate the next crop of Randy Roberts (future leaders) while working to promote a political process that is positive, polite, and productive.

We accomplish this by providing support for students who excel at public service and student leadership through scholarships, funding for leadership development opportunities, and unique educational events.

One such example of this is our coordination of the Congressional Classroom Program for high school juniors in Congressional District 12.

We’re proud of the ten students now on scholarship.

It was insane to do this so quickly after his death, but it was also a perfect storm. Adam and Melissa Putnam suggested it and we announced it at the funeral, even though we had not formulated the plan yet. What we did know is that it would involve young people. So many people called to offer their support that we were able to award our first scholarship in June 2009.

Like Randy’s life did, and like our logo symbolizes, we want to create a ripple effect – lives that touch, encircle, support one another and reach outward in order to make the world a better place.

Focus: What prompted his motivation to encourage young leaders?

Roberts:Even as a young man, Randy was engaged in the culture, value-driven and involved. He was also astute in the political realm. One thing he did more recently was to find young people interested in politics and help cultivate/encourage them to get involved. He wanted to be able to demonstrate the answer to the question ‘How can parents make good citizens of their children?’ He spoke at schools and did a ton of stuff that I don’t even know about. He did not want people to be bystanders. He had a fair and balanced approach and a good mind for strategy. And he cared enough about young people to dialogue with them and model it for them.

Focus: What is a lesson you’ve learned through all of this, Sara?

Roberts:I still have those ‘I want us all to be together’ days.’ When I see daddies holding hands with their children – that just about does me in. But each day is a new one in the evolution of continual faith. My dad’s mother always reminded us that you must persevere. Interestingly, when a friend and I were searching for life verses for our children, based on their birth dates, I came across Hebrews 10:25. Yesterday (the day before our interview) at BSF, I was tracking back to that verse again, and do you know what the sub-heading for that section is titled? – A Call to Persevere.

And in honor of Randy and his commitment to make a difference, we will. And hopefully, in the process, we’ll help others do that, too.

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