Mrs. Sagaert: Feature Teacher and wildlife volunteer

Written by: Jessica Allen '13

            Mrs. Sagaert has been teaching for 26 years, ten of which have been at ERHS. She worked in an elementary school in Ionia, Greyhound Intermediate, and the Eaton Rapids Middle School. Sagaert has been working with Special Education for 20 years.

            She attended Grand Valley for her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in teaching. Sagaert knew she was going to be a teacher at age five, “When I was in the basement with all of my friends, I was always the kid at the blackboard being the teacher.” Many people in her family were teachers as well. Her grandfather was a professor and her aunt was a teacher, which helped show her that she could do it also if she wanted.

Her favorite part about teaching is seeing the growth of her students over the four-year period she gets to spend with them and her favorite class to teach is math. Students know that she is very loud and ‘out there’ about everything. She shares her stories with anyone who will listen because she hopes that someday it will help someone.

She decided to work in the Special Education program when she helped out during high school. She worked one summer in a program for mentally challenged children and continued going back every summer after that.

            Mrs. Sagaert’s grandmother and mother gave her the love she has for animals and taught her about making a commitment to something. Her mother has been a nurse for 50 years, and is still going strong in her profession. Her mother plans on continuing nursing until the day she dies and Sagaert says, “I’ll probably be a teacher until I pass as well!”

Sagaert always had a strong love for animals and had she not become a teacher, she would have been a veterinarian. When asked about it, Mrs. Sagaert said, “I do sometimes wonder what it would have been like to be a veterinarian, but when I was little no one told me that I could be a vet, I thought it was only a job for males. At age 30, I thought about going back to vet school, but decided that with my career already started and my wildlife rescue it would be too much.”

Her hobbies include taking care of wildlife and her pets and hanging out with her house full of animals. She owns 12 indoor cats and has three dogs as well. Sagaert was in Florida recently for an international wildlife conference. It was two days long and she learned oil spill training and disaster planning. She plans on attending the trip to Costa Rica with Mrs. Nutt and Mrs. Brantley in the summer of 2012 to experience some of the other wildlife around the world.

Sagaert is known for her love of animals, along with her willingness to help anyone, or anything that needs it. As a result, she runs a wildlife rescue in Eaton Rapids three miles south of town called Wildside Rehabilitation, which admits around 1,000 animals every year. The rescue opened 16 years ago on the corner Bellevue Hwy. and Houston Rd. and now has three rooms to house animals in. There is a mammal, songbird, and raptor room. The rescue currently has eight non-releasable animals that are used for education. These include a horned owl, a red-tailed hawk, a short-eared owl, a screech owl, a North American beaver, and a woodchuck that only has bottom teeth and hangs out with cats.

There are many colorful animals with big personalities at the rescue, many of which are present just long enough to get healthy and be adopted or released back into the wild. The rescue is fully funded by donations and veterinarian bills are paid out-of pocket by Sagaert and her volunteers. Student volunteers are accepted, but it is a large commitment and a big responsibility.

Sagaert has much dedication to her students and her wildlife. She is a great teacher and mentor. Mrs. Sagaert will continue her teaching career for many more years at ERHS.