By Marilyn Miller

Sara McDaniel is sitting at a table in the front room of The Broken Bean when Art Campbell passes through asking everyone their name. Except Sara. He just waves at her. If Art knows your name in Minden, Louisiana, you know you’ve made it.

Proof of that took place on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025 when the Springhill native was named Minden’s Woman of the Year for 2025 by the Young Women’s Service Club. That’s right…a Springhill native. And for the cherry on top for the north Webster town, Minden’s Man of the Year 2025, Tracy Campbell, is also from Springhill.

What’s going on here? Well, it seems that both of these young entrepreneurs moved to Minden “and just fell in love with it.”

For Sara, it was a near falling-down house on McDonald Street that brought her to Minden in 2016. While renovating her cottage, Sara began a blog, which “blew up,” capturing the attention of well over half-a-million followers on Facebook, Instagram, Tic Tok and Pinterest We’ll find out about Tracy next week.

In the nine years that Sara has lived in Minden she has tackled 28 remodeling projects. Most are complete. There is the second floor of the Fuller-White house on West Union Street that Sara has just been awarded a grant by the Louisiana Division of Historical Preservation to complete. The house will always be a “gathering place,” she says, for birthday parties, teas, baby showers, retirement celebrations, and more.

And Phillip’s Cottage, across the street, is close to being 50 percent finished. “The exterior is completed, except for painting,” Sara noted, “We’re doing the interior plumbing and electrical now…the sheetrock next week. The yard is so bad…the driveway is being replaced.” Right now, August is the tentative opening date for the residence that will be a home for female graduates of Adult Challenge, with their children. The home is named in honor of Sara’s dad, Phillip Carroll, who died unexpectedly several years ago.

All proceeds from the upcoming “Phillip’s Cottage 5K Run (and Fun Run)” will go toward renovation of the 3,000-square-foot home. That will take place on April 12 at 8:30 a.m. in downtown Minden. The Fun Run begins at 8 a.m. Registration is open now.

Another project that Sara is working on is sponsored by Forbes Media, which is looking for the “Entrepreneur of Impact” for 2025. To win the award and $25,000 in cash, she must raise the most money for GENYOUth, a 501c3 national nonprofit dedicated to helping schoolchildren thrive by living a well-nourished and physically active life.

Sara says “every bit of the $25,000 will go to rebuilding the Creekside Apartments parking lot,” her affordable housing 8-plex on West Union. “It’s really just a sweet community,” she said. “We’ve got some single girls, single moms (some from Adult Challenge), retirees, working families, and our office for the Villas.”  People are welcome to help Sara raise the money for this cause.

Sara STAYS busy! Asked if there was such a thing as a “laid back Sara,” she grudgingly replied, “There is not! I do take time to rest, but I’ve been this way all my life. I don’t know why (my Mom doesn’t understand it). But, the answer is ‘No!’”

Sara does give her staff credit for “keeping this ship afloat.” From housekeeping to marketing, her team of Holly Monday, Brandi Cade, Ashley Harris, and Deb and Donnie Fuller are the MVPs and “They are amazing humans!”

“All of my contracting team is local…it takes a lot of people to keep this ship afloat.”

Traveling takes up a good portion of Sara’s time. She continues to train teachers, and she has a number of business retreats planned. In April, she will fly to Tulsa, OK to pick up a grant from the Ladies of the 798. It has been donated to Phillip’s Cottage renovations.

Sara beams when she talks about her recent trip to Thailand to learn more about combatting human trafficking through The Exodus Road. The initiative “partners with law enforcement to find and free trafficked people, to train and educate officers and everyday citizens to protect their communities, and to empower survivors with restorative care on their journey into freedom.”

Sara knows that there is a lot of attention on her, given her blog and the natures of her businesses. “But there are a lot of people in Minden doing amazing things. I try to say that as often as I can.” Case in point, she says, is the hiring of Sarah Overall as the new Minden Main Street director. “She will see that all events are done to excellence.”

Asked about upcoming projects, she admits that there are things in the works.

“I’ve done a lot,” she says, “but I’m not finished yet.”