Sara Middleton said it best herself in her post to Facebook announcing her resignation, “if you haven’t heard already, you’re about to get some big news.” Big news, indeed! Middleton has been ever present in the center of nearly everything going on in Eagle Grove since taking on the job of Chamber Director, three years ago. But on the third anniversary of her joining the Chamber, Middleton announced her resignation. And that announcement sent a shock through the city’s system.
“Yesterday marked three years in this incredibly humbling, rewarding, and challenging position, and I cannot thank the Chamber Board of Directors, our members, and the community enough for the opportunity and the support,” Middleton wrote. In an interview with the Eagle, she expanded on that subject. “I have spent the last three years in complete and absolutely total awe of the resilience and determination of the local business community,” Middleton said, “not only to stay in business but to do good for the community, and I’ve been paying attention, and learning from them, and looking up to them.”
Middleton explained that she’d come to believe that she could do more for the city as one of the business owners she’d come to admire so much, than her job as Director of the Chamber of Commerce allowed. “I almost think I could be of better service to Eagle Grove as a member of the business community, than as the Chamber Director,” Middleton said. “Because I don’t have to leave any part of me behind, I can bring all of my vision to bear, and not just be a cheerleader for Eagle Grove, but a player on the team. A leader, an artist, and part of the artistic community as well as the business community.”
Middleton addressed the questions people would have pre-emptively in her post to Facebook. “People will ask why I’m resigning or what I’m doing next,” Middleton wrote, “and the answer is while I know some pieces of what I’ll do now, I don’t know exactly what my professional life is going to look like. And that’s okay.”
Speaking to the outpouring of both concern for the coomunity at the loss of Middleton in the crucial role in which she’d been so effective, and support for her pursuing her dreams, Middleton said, “I need people to understand that I am doing this because I need to, yes, but also because I really feel I can do more without the constraints on my creativity that the responsibility of this job entails.” She also explained that doing all that she’s done hasn’t come without a personal cost. “I’ve poured my heart and soul into helping this community, and it’s been a privilege,” Middleton wrote on Facebook, “but my lack of an “off” button and extreme personal attachment to doing well in the position have left me tired to the depths of my soul and unconnected to nearly every part of me besides the one called ‘Chamber Lady.’”
And while Middleton expressed that she was equal parts inspired by the people she worked for in her job, and exhausted by the job itself, she also made it clear that she’s not done making a difference locally. “Sara isn’t going anywhere,” Middleton wrote to the Eagle in the third person. “Eagle Grove is home and, if anything, she’ll be doubling down on her commitment to making it a great place to live through volunteering for the Chamber and working toward the biggest show of love for a town a person can do–opening a small business.”
“Business owners are the gutsiest people of all,” Middleton said, “they just have the drive and passion to keep going no matter what. I’ve watched them innovate, and pivot, and do all this stuff that should scare me off, but it just makes me want to be one of them more.” Which has left Middleton determined to find a way to fill a void she sees, not only in Eagle Grove, but in Wright County, and even the surrounding counties, which is an under-developed arts community. “Ultimately I’m resigning to follow the pull of the thing inside me that I’ve been feeling since I started doing art,” Middleton said, expressing that whatever form her new business would eventually take, it would center around art, and not just her own.
How it would affect her personal life, Middleton discussed on Facebook. “I plan to dive deeper into my identity as a creative, a dog mom, a lover of nature, a friend, a wife, and a loved one to the rest of my family,” Middleton wrote. “I plan to enjoy this great community more as a resident. I plan to continue giving back, but now in ways that connect to my “why” in life—more on that a bit later down the road.”
