Princess Sarah Culberson Speaks in Zanesville

Zanesville, OH-

The Straker Foundation sponsored Princess Sarah Culberson to speak at the Secrest Auditorium today for the Comm“UNITY” Reads Program.

Along with help from the Muskingum County Library System, Sarah was able to share her journey from being adopted and raised in West Virginia to finding out she is a princess in her birth father’s home country, Sierra Leone. 

“It was so much fun to share my story with everyone, and the high school students rocked my world. They are so upbeat and have so much love, and it was so much fun to be with everyone. It was uplifting for me actually,” author Sarah Culberson stated. 

Muskingum County students in their sophomore or junior year of high school were allowed to enter into the 2023 Mary Helen Straker Award in Writing. The award, along with a $2,500 cash prize, was handed out to the best essay reflecting on Sarah’s book “A Princess Found.” This year’s winner was Ruben Quintero, and he explained his favorite part of the book to us. 

“Just like, the whole thing about her trying to find her family and bring them together and everything. I think it’s really special, and it’s a really good book.” 

One of Sarah’s passions is education, and she mentioned what kind of impact it can have. 

“Education in a community is everything. I think one of the things my dad always said to me as a child is ‘never stop learning Sarah.’ He said, ‘We always got to keep learning because there is always something new to learn, that’s how we grow, that’s how we expand.’ So, I think it’s vital to a community.” 

For information on The Straker Foundation, you can visit https://www.strakerfoundation.org. For the Muskingum County Library System, you can go to muskingumlibrary.org. If you want to follow along with upcoming events for Princess Sarah, check out the website www.sierraleonerising.org or social media channels @iamprincesssc.