By Ruth Ann Ruiz
The Post Newspaper Features Editor
“Barbara Sanderson is the epitome of what makes city staff so great,” said Galveston City Manager Brian Maxwell. “Born and raised on the island, Barbara loves serving the city that helped raise her. Coming from a family deeply rooted in public service, helping, and serving others is just second nature for her.”
I came to meet Barbara Sanderson about 10 years ago when I first started reporting on the events happening in the region. Barbara has a certain Southern charm to her, and it left a distinct impression on me.
Her voice has always been soft, gentle, and filled with a Texas lullabying twang, easily recognized in a room of other voices. She carries herself with elegance and compassion for others.
If I was attending an event and I heard her voice or saw her in the room, her presence projected calm confidence to me. I’ve never really known her personally. We’ve had only a distant professional relationship, but it has always felt like a personal relationship.
Her ever-present observation skills and concern for others are traits that she embodies.
Last summer while covering a Galveston City event, I, with camera and notebook at hand, was about to pass out. Barbara noticed and offered me a chair to sit on, cold water and anything else that a sun-weary journalist might have needed.
As I stepped into her office to conduct my interview, my mind went in all sorts of directions. I wanted to ask her where she got her lovely pink pantsuit and who her hairstylist was. Then I wanted to know if she played with Barbie dolls as a little girl. I just wanted to chat with her as if she were a friend.
But I kept my more invasive questions from bubbling out and was able to learn more about Barbara Sanderson, who has spent 34 years of her life in public service for the people of Galveston.
Growing up on the west end of Galveston, Barbara enjoyed horseback riding, bicycle riding and dance classes. She also vividly remembers her summers were filled with time spent at Galveston Parks and Recreation facilities, where she played Ping-Pong and tennis, to name just two activities she participated in.
We got to the part where I realized we are kindred spirits when I asked about what else she had enjoyed as a child and young person.
Barbara played the clarinet at both Island and Weis schools. When she hit high school, she combined skills learned in her years of dance classes with her love of band and became a majorette.
“I was a majorette in high school, but I didn’t get to blow the whistle and lead the band till I was a senior,” Barbara shared.
That was the underlying bond between us — our histories as band geeks. Barbara was the one in front of the band who used her whistle and went tweeeet, tweet, tweet, tweet, thus signaling for everyone behind her to get in step and begin the halftime show or strut down the street in a parade.
I, too, was in front of my high school band as a baton twirler and paid close attention to the upward motion of the drum major’s huge mace and the empty hand that held a tight fist leading us in our march down the field.
Barbara is proud to proclaim, “Once a Tor always a Tor.”
She graduated from Ball Hall School in 1978. True to her Galveston roots, she attended Galveston College and studied early childhood education.
As a young woman with two young sons, she worked at Moody Methodist Church’s half-day Mom’s Day Out program.
“I did this so I could be home when my sons were at home, and I am really proud to see that the program has grown to be a full-time childcare center at Moody Methodist,” Barbara explained.
Her next job brought her to the city to work in customer service, which explains her service-oriented attitude. From that position she moved over to the Parks and Recreation Department in 1993, and by 1998, she was in front leading the team as Director of Parks and Recreation for the City of Galveston.
Barbara handed a love of swimming and a dedication to public service down to her two sons. Both were part of junior guard, then went on to work at Galveston Beach Patrol and later to serve as police officers with Galveston Police Department. Their grandfather, Barbara’s father, was also a police officer.
Her sense of swimming as an essential skill for safety and life enjoyment meant she was all on board when various people in the community and on city staff began to pursue opening a municipal swimming pool in Galveston.
Teaming with individuals and Better Parks for Galveston, a nonprofit organization whose mission, according to President Mary Cooper is to raise funds for the city parks and recreation centers, the city of Galveston opened its first municipal swimming pool in August 2017.
Today the swimming pool hosts swimming lessons, water aerobics, lifeguard training, public swimming hours and various community events.
As a user of the swimming pool, I can testify that the classes are full and sometimes, you even have to wait a spell to get a lap lane for solo swimming.
Given Barbara’s contributions to the community and her collaboration with their organization, members of Better Parks for Galveston knew they wanted to honor her at their 2024 fundraiser.
“She’s a wonderful person and when we think of Galveston Parks and Rec, we think of Barbara Sanderson,” Cooper said.
Both Cooper and Board Member Carolyn Sunseri shared that Barbara was interested in being the honoree only if the funds raised would be used for the swimming pool.
Therefore, all funds raised from this year’s party/fundraiser, Let’s Make a Splash, on May 16 will be used for Lasker Community Pool. Funds will help support scholarship programs for swimming lessons and other needed pool supplies, both Sunseri and Cooper confirmed.
Recently, Better Parks for Galveston teamed with other organizations to put a new cool deck in the pool area.
Looking through my lens to take a portrait image of Barbara, I see some shadows of sadness in her eyes that perhaps only a kindred spirit with a camera lens would notice. She lost one of her sons to cancer in March of 2017, and then in October 2017, her husband passed on. He had been on kidney dialysis.
Barbara leaned on her friends, family, and coworkers to support her through that difficult time in her life. Today, she has a ready smile and continues to have a spirit of service that she shares with those around her. She serves on numerous nonprofit boards in Galveston, and she finds life to be fulfilling.
“I am just happy for the time I had with both of them, and I am happy,” Barbara said. “I’m living a good life. I can’t complain at all. Life is too short. If I wasn’t happy, I would make some changes.”
For now, the most apparent changes Barbara has made in the past few years include losing more than 50 pounds, getting a short, chic hairstyle, and adding snappy bright colors to her wardrobe.
Barbara continues to live in and contribute to Galveston through her career and her service to various nonprofits. She serves on the Oktoberfest board as chairperson. The annual event is sponsored by the church of her childhood, First Lutheran Church of Galveston
These days, she has a new title and additional responsibilities in her work with the city. She is now Executive Director of Parks Recreation and Community Outreach.
If you would like to know more about Better Parks for Galveston or wish to attend Let’s Make a Splash, you can find out more at https://www.betterparksforgalveston.org.
