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Farm manager enjoys the gift of her job
Updated: November 27, 2012 10:42AM
GLENVIEW — Sarah Hagye, Glenview Wagner Farm program manager, counts her blessings.
While employees in other folks often arrive at work hoping to see a corner office with a view, Hagye arrives to the sounds of a crowing rooster, chirping winter cardinals and maybe even the sounds of cows mooing in the distance. The laughter of children makes this farm girl, raised in Glenview, smile. Meet Sarah Hagye, an Evanston resident and a 1998 graduate of Glenbrook South High School. Sarah’s mother is Nancy Peter of Glenview. Sarah encourages all to visit Wagner Farm and www.wagnerfarm.org.
Q. What is the role of the Wagner Farm program manager?
A. I am in charge of all of the school field trips that come through, and the park district programs that we run year-round. We do a lot of special events at the farm, so I’m sort of a “Jack of All Trades” when it comes to visitors.
Q. What are the sounds of the farm? What greets you when you arrive to work?
A. What greets me when I come to work … I like that question … it depends on the time of day. If I’m here really early in the morning, it’s rustling leaves and just the sound of wind. If I’m here when it’s very busy, it’s the sounds of kids running around, screaming about to their parents that they can see a horse or a cow. I had a kid yesterday come into the farm for a field trip and say, ‘Are we gonna milk a real cow that actually moos?’ So it’s those kinds of voices, I think the kids’ voices, the excitement of them, that I personally love the most.
Q. Talk about your Glenview childhood.
A. My great-grandpa used to do the taxes for the Wagner family, and he was president of the Glenview State Bank, and so I grew up hearing stories about the Wagner family and have memories of driving past this farm and seeing cows on my way to my aunt’s house. So, when this farm was saved, I was just so happy because when you think of Glenview, you think of the farm. You think of the cows. And this is such a treasure to be able to offer people in our community, to be able to teach them this is where your food comes from, this is what existed in Glenview before your house was even built.
Q. How did Glenbrook South High School shape you?
A. I took a living history class my junior year of high school and we did work at The Grove (National Historic Landmark) here in Glenview, and that sort of exposed me to the world of education in museums and informal learning environments. And I always say I caught the museum bug when I was about 17 years old, so I sort of knew, in the back of my mind, that I was going to end up in some kind of education/museum related field.
Q. Are you having a good life?
A. I am. You know, this is one of these jobs where you don’t mind getting up and going to work every day. I know going into work that there’s going to be something different happening every day. I’m going to meet new people every day, and there will be new stories to tell at the end of every day. And I just think that when you can have a job where it’s more than a job, where you go to work and you feel like you’re working with family, and you get to inspire people, that’s a gift.
