Being Known by Sharon at the Bon

Reported by: Molly Giesbrecht

Photographed by: Imogene Eagan

If there is one person who excels at spreading the George Fox University (GFU) “Be Known” promise to students on campus, it is Sharon the card-checker and cashier at Bon Appetit. Sharon makes a continual effort to learn as many students' names as she can, and continually check up on them and get to know them better whenever they pass through the Bon.

Sharon has worked at GFU on and off and attended as a student since 1994, and she took a full-time position as a Bon cashier four years ago. Early on in her full-time position, Sharon realized the immense importance of being known by name after talking to and praying with a student who was going through a rough time. Since then, she has made a conscious effort to learn each and every student’s name that she interacts with, and little things about them.

“I like knowing people,” Sharon said. “It happens sometimes that I say to a student, ‘how are you?’ and they say something, and I say, ‘no, what’s going on?’ And I believe that’s something that God’s given me. And then, I say they spilled. And I tell them ‘I’ll pray for you.’”

Gabrielle Brinkman is a junior who has lived on campus and been dining at the Bon all three years she has attended the school. She, like so many others, had nothing but positive and heartwarming things to say about Sharon. “She seems like just the prime example of someone whose life is proof of God’s love,” Brinkman said. “Every day, she makes an effort to make us feel known, even if it’s just for a few seconds.”

The love that students feel from Sharon is not one-sided. “All of you give back to me, too,” Sharon said. “Given my age and such, having you young people take time to talk to me and share your lives with me has meant a lot to me too. Sometimes it catches me unaware, I’m like, ‘Oh! They like me!’ The students have let me into their lives and bless me.”

The connections that began as five-second conversations while passing through to get a meal have extended far beyond the walls of the dining hall. Sharon has met students’ friends and extended family members, and attended numerous sporting, musical, theater, and chapel events which she would not have attended if it weren't for meeting students at the Bon. She said, “when asked whom I’m there to see or support, my response is, ‘I claim all of them.’”

As long as Sharon is still working, students at GFU know that there is a safe place to be known and feel cared for, and always someone to talk to at the Bon. A former student by the name of Graedy put it, “Whoever would have thought that a card swiper would become a such a good friend.”