Let Me Tell You About My Friend, Sandra
Before she was Georgia's First Lady, she was our Sandra.
Last week I had the distinct honor of presenting the Georgia Commission on Women’s Sandra Deal Excellence in Education Award at our Champions for Change Day ceremony to the award’s namesake, Sandra Deal. Sadly, we lost Sandra to breast cancer last August, so her family accepted the award posthumously on her behalf.
There is so much I want to tell you about Sandra, but I’ve haven’t been able to put the words together until now. If you live in Georgia, you know her as our former First Lady who served our state graciously while her husband, Governor Nathan Deal, was in office. For many of you reading now, she was Jason, Mary Emily, Carrie, and Katie’s mama and a fixture in our lives, particularly during our teenage years. She loved teenagers, and her house was often full of a whole bunch of us who stayed up dancing in her basement until all hours of the night and whom she fed breakfast in shifts as we woke up the next morning. She was at every track meet and basketball game, and it didn’t matter whether you belonged to her or not, she had oodles of encouragement and a warm hug whether you did well or fell short.
When we were in high school Governor Deal was then Senator Deal, president pro-tempore of the Georgia Senate. Since the children of politicians are often under more intense public scrutiny, we all sort of low-key understood that if we got in too much trouble the Deal kids would end up in the newspaper and possibly on the six o’clock news, and we didn’t want that to happen. In addition to enjoying having a house full of teenagers, Sandra knew she could keep an eye on us and make sure we didn’t get in too much trouble.
She tagged along with us on many of our adventures, ostensibly to “take pictures,” but most likely to “keep us from accidentally hurting ourselves due to bad ideas executed poorly.” One weekend a bunch of us from the cross country team decided to go rappelling on Mount Yonah near Cleveland, Georgia. None of us had ever been rappelling before except for one team member who was going to bring the ropes and equipment and teach us all how to do it. Sandra could see the potential for “bad ideas” and “poor execution” all over that scheme, so she came along to “take pictures.” The thing is, it never seemed weird at all for her to be there. I hope there is a picture in the Deal archives of her from that day. Her blonde hair was long at the time, and it was blowing wildly all over the place. She looked like she was having a blast.
(There allegedly was an incident where a certain cross country team full of its success decided to paint its team colors on the rival Gainesville High School’s Rock, and a certain future First Lady *may* have allegedly driven the getaway car. Allegedly.)
We all need those adults in our lives who aren’t our parents but think we are super awesome and love us anyway. I’ve been blessed with many such people in my own life, and I’m forever grateful to my friends who have been these adults for my children.
Sandra believed in the importance of education, a topic she always found a way to talk about with us. As Georgia’s First Lady, she made education, particularly early literacy, the cornerstone of her work across the state. I can’t think of a more appropriate way to recognize the work of educators in Georgia than with an award that bears her name. I had prepared remarks I gave in handing out this award that I want to share here, and I’ll put them below.
Champions for Change Day
The Sandra Deal Excellence in Education Award
As First Lady, Sandra Deal was a champion for education. The daughter of educators and a teacher herself, Sandra believed in the power of education to help each of us become our best selves. She knew reading was the basic foundation on which all learning is built, and as First Lady she made early literacy for Georgia’s youngest students her passion and focus.
In the eight years Governor Deal was in office, Sandra visited 800 schools and pre-k programs, and she read to students in all of Georgia’s 159 counties and 181 school districts. She completed her 1,000th school visit on November 30, 2018 shortly before Governor Deal left office.
Before she was Georgia’s First Lady, she was our Sandra—or for me, Mrs. Deal, Jason, Mary Emily, Carrie, and Katie’s mama—and years before she stepped into the spotlight of her public job, she encouraged all of us—the friends of her children—to pursue our educations after high school not just for the doors our education would open for us, but for the people we would become in the process.
I remember many one-on-one conversations I had with her in high school about my plans for the future. Education was not just something she talked about when the cameras were rolling; the importance of getting an education was a central belief she held close.
Sandra Deal left her mark on education in the State of Georgia. Her alma mater, Georgia College, created the Sandra Dunagan Deal Center for Early Language and Literacy to provide research and professional learning opportunities to improve reading outcomes for Georgia’s students. In 2024, Sandra Dunagan Deal Elementary School will open in Hall County.
Her commitment to literacy programs and tireless efforts to inspire Georgia students to read during her time as First Lady will have a lasting impact on the lives she touched.
Many of us gathered today knew her personally—her family, her prayer group, her friends, and those who worked with her as First Lady.
Sandra Deal was the best of us. She brought out the best IN us. We are better people for having her in our lives, and we are a better state for having had her as our First Lady.
It is our honor to award the first Sandra Deal Excellence in Education Award to Sandra Deal.
Here is the official recording of the First Annual Champions for Change Day. My remarks are at the 23:30 mark, and you can see Carrie Deal’s lovely acceptance remarks at 27:00. (Mary Emily got credit for Carrie’s speech on the video, but we’re working on fixing that to give credit where credit is due. If fixing and reposting the video messes up the link in the email, I’ll fix the link on the website, so click the post title to see it there if you need to.)
I got a Sweet Tea out two weeks in a row! Woot! Don’t get used to it. I’m having the last surgery of my little detour through breast cancer next week, so it may be a couple of weeks before you hear from me here again. Next week also marks the one year anniversary of my cancer diagnosis and my world turning upside down, and I haven’t decided if I’m going to be all up in my feels about that or not. I have decided I’m going to celebrate my cancerversary—if you know, you know—on the day doctors cut it out of my body. That would be May 4th, also known as Star Wars Day (May the Fourth Be With You), which means it will be an easy date for my family to remember. It’s been a journey, but that journey is coming to an end. Your prayers have bolstered me all along the way, and I am grateful for all of them and for you.
I hope you are all able to get out and enjoy this early (likely false) spring weather. The trees are trying to kill me, so I’m bunkering down indoors. I’ll report back when I’m able.
Until next time,
Karla
PS: One last thing about Sandra before I close out. She was always telling us, “Now girls. You need to put some color on your face. Go back in and put some lipstick on.” Yeah, we rolled our eyes, but to this day, if I’m going to be in front of people, say, presenting an award, I always make sure I’ve got a little color on my face and my lipstick on. And I think of Sandra.