A Priceless Lesson: Sarah Center Helped Ronda Discover Her Worth

It doesn’t really matter now how much Ronda Bennit earned when she sold the first pair of earrings she made at the Sarah Center more than 20 years ago. That bit of extra cash is long gone. What remains is the value Ronda found in herself.

When she moved to Cincinnati in 1991, Ronda was in an abusive relationship. Then, she found the Sarah Center and made that first pair of earrings in a jewelry class.

“I didn’t have any confidence in myself,” Ronda recalls. “But when I made my first pair of earrings, I couldn’t start off simple. I had to do something extra. That just made me feel so much better, like, I can do this. It gave me a sense of worthiness.”

In the decades since that turning point in her life, Ronda, 58, has come to the Sarah Center as many as three days a week. She began sewing with her grandmother when she was 10, and the center has given her even more ways to express herself and explore outlets for her boundless creativity.

She’s learned quilting and dabbled in painting. She’s done metal and glass work and made dolls, wreaths, and cards, in addition to jewelry.

But the main reason Ronda keeps coming back to Sarah Center isn’t just the classes — it’s the community. The center is her primary social circle, a place where people from all walks of life come together and share their stories, supporting and learning from one another.

One of Ronda’s favorite memories of the center is about Benjamin, a man with developmental disabilities who used to come and make jewelry. Benjamin never quite adopted the center’s usual way of organizing beads and other materials. Instead, he would put all his unused beads into one box, creating a hodgepodge of shapes, colors, and sizes. The box became known as “Benjamin’s box,” and other participants would sort through the jumble of beads to create innovative items they otherwise might not have been inspired to make.

“It’s like family here. Everybody’s welcome,” Ronda says. “It’s a safe haven. It’s a place where there’s no prejudice. It’s unique here.”

For the past four years, Ronda has been making a quilt for herself. She’ll work on it for a while, then set it aside when life gets in the way. She knows she can return to it when she’s ready.

Lately, life has been in the way more than usual. Some difficult challenges have kept Ronda from getting to the center as often as she’d like. But like the quilt, she knows the Sarah Center will be there for her whenever the time is right.

And like that first pair of earrings Ronda made all those years ago, having a place that feels like home and friends who feel like family — that’s priceless.