Tara, the only girl on a boys’ select baseball team, earning her the nickname, “Uno”- the one and only, played her last game pitching in the 2002 USSSA World Series Semifinals. Celebrating their successful season, the Sawyers spent the following week at their family lake house swimming, eating snow cones and enjoying time together with friends and team families. But something wasn’t quite right as Tara continually complained of a bad headache.
Three days later, the Sawyer family found themselves at Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas. What started out as a season’s-end celebration turned into the worst nightmare as Tara had contracted amebic meningoencephalitis, a rare waterborne amoeba brain infection that would take her life at the young age of 10-years-old.
While Tara had a passion for sports, particularly baseball, her personal mission and purpose was unmistakably encouraging others. Tara’s selfless example was notably expressed from loved ones and friends inspiring her family to honor her memory through the Tara Sawyer Foundation. TSF not only helps financially sustain those in need but cultivates good character and conduct by recognizing selected graduating seniors with their most prestigious gift given specifically in Tara’s memory, The Barnabas Award (Barnabas meaning “the encourager.”)