About Sarah E. Menez
The Sarah Ellen Menez Memorial Scholarship was established in memory of Sarah Menez (1954-2013) with the goal of recognizing students who exemplify strength of character, musicianship and academic achievement.
About Sarah Menez
Sarah Menez was born on January 29, 1954, in Columbus, Ohio to Robert and Agnes Crabbs who predeceased her in 2001 and 2007 respectively. In the early years of her life through age 12, she attended public school in the Whitehall City School District in Whitehall, Ohio (Columbus) where one of the schools she attended was named Beechwood Elementary School. It was also a place and time where she began taking lessons in the piano and bassoon. Her father was a teacher, then Superintendent of the Whitehall School District for 10 years. In 1966 he accepted the superintendent’s post of Mariemont School District in Cincinnati.
Sarah attended public school in Mariemont where she continued to develop her interest in music by playing the piano and bassoon and in acting by participating in theater productions through the Thespian’s Club. It is from these years that in the subsequent years of her life she drew inspiration for acting in live theater and playing the jazz piano.
Upon graduation, she attended the Boston University College of Fine Arts. She was in live theater productions and played representative roles, presented by the Theatre-by-the-Sea in Rhode Island, the Omnibus Theatre Company of Boston, and the Cincinnati Theatre Project. She also had acting roles in various productions in Educational Theatre and Children’s Theatre in Boston and Cincinnati.
She was a humanitarian and passionate about social justice and animal welfare and had a particular affection for cats. She volunteered in a program to read to blind persons. She was a passionate supporter of certain causes such as the American Cancer Society, Humane Society of the U.S., the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Food Store, and, most recently, the ALS Association. She was an ardent lover of the arts, especially music and theater, and supported them as well.
She enjoyed being a step-mother to Katherine and Elizabeth Menez (Beechwood High School graduates, `02 and `03) and was a constant source of support to them in their respective journeys and in recognizing and applauding their durable achievements. She played the piano, especially jazz piano, and played at a Northern Kentucky University jazz concert along with some other Beechwood student musicians. As a lifelong music lover, she had an irrepressible fondness for playing the jazz piano.
Before her ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) diagnosis in 2011, she liked her solitude simply to be and restore her soul. Before the disease forbade such activities, she had an active lifestyle in that she loved to walk, especially in parks and on walking trails, visit the library, sit down in the midst of artwork in a museum and take it all in, or just rest on a park bench. She was a never-failing source of encouragement, caring, and kindness to others and rarely asked anything in return. She was appreciative and grateful for small acts of kindness – a card, a visit from a friend or doctor, a bouquet of flowers, a phone call, a hairdo, and even a freshly baked chocolate chip muffin. She had a hearty disrespect for puffery of any kind. She had an interest in reading attested to by her 327 book library. And, she had an infectious smile.