American Red Cross Volunteer is Henrietta's Woman of the Year

The town of Henrietta honored one of our volunteers from the GreaterRochester Chapter last week.

Sarah Perkins received the Antoinette Brown Blackwell Society’s 2014 Henrietta Women of the Year award.  The award is given to a Henrietta resident who has demonstrated leadership, inspired others toward the common good or has been a role model through her actions. She was presented with the award on Wednesday, May 7^th.

Sarah served as a Platoon Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps for five years after training at Parris Island, South Carolina. She later became the first female patrol officer with the San Diego County in California. After that position she moved on to become a media specialist at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf for 25 years.

Following her retirement in 2004, Sarah became an American Red Cross volunteer. She now serves as the New York State Disaster Assessment Lead. In this role, Perkins and her teams determine the extent of damage at a disaster and evaluate the immediate needs and resources for those impacted. Sarah has deployed more than 30 times and serves as a trainer to other volunteers and staff.

The woman whom this award Sarah received is named after Antoinette Brown Blackwell, the first U.S. female ordained minister. Blackwell was born in Henrietta in 1825 and became a minister in 1853 at the First Congregational Church in Butler, Wayne County. She was a womens' rights advocate, suffragist and abolitionist. She died in 1921 at the age of 96.