SOS In The News

Woman wears childhood Steel memory on her back

Tuesday, September 07, 2004

By ASHLEIGH GRAF, The Express-Times

Sarah Andrew grew up with the happiness and heartbreak of Bethlehem Steel.

She watched her father, an electrician, get laid off in the early 1990s.

She watched the Steel stop producing steel in 1995.

She watched the coke works shut down in 1998.

But for Andrew, no matter how much of the Steel closes or gets torn down, it remains a permanent part of her life -- and her body.

Three years ago a Washington, D.C., tattoo artist spent four hours recreating four sections of the sprawling plant on Andrew's back.

"It represents the city of Bethlehem, my childhood," she said. "The Steel is visually just beautiful."

More than beautiful, the Steel represents an era when people could make an honest living creating something, she said. Andrew doesn't want people to forget that time.

After earning a bachelor's degree from Millersville University, Andrew spent two years working with AmeriCorps in Washington, D.C.

Created in 1993, AmeriCorps is a network of national service programs that engages more than 50,000 Americans each year in intensive service to tutor and mentor youth, build affordable housing and teach computer skills, according to the AmeriCorps Web site.

They also clean parks and streams, run after-school programs and help communities respond to disasters.

Eventually Andrew responded to another calling -- to return to Bethlehem to be with her family; to be part of what felt like an emerging arts scene; to help save her Steel.

In 2002 she convinced her boyfriend, Marc Rittle, to make the move with her. Now married, the pair returned to the world of Andrew's childhood.

Andrew went about trying to make sure the Steel was remembered by more than just a tattoo on her upper back.

But getting involved was harder than she thought.

She came across Mike Kramer and Amey Senape, co-founders of Save Our Steel, a group that wants to preserve the Steel land and buildings during development.

After the group launched its Web site, saveoursteel.org, Andrew contacted Kramer and offered her help, also mentioning her Steel tattoo, Kramer said.

"We were like, hmm, this is somebody we ought to talk to," Kramer said.

As part of Save Our Steel, Andrew has helped gather signatures for petitions and letters and helped spread the word about the effort.

Andrew also became involved with the Lehigh-Pocono Committee of Concern's Peace Center in South Side Bethlehem as a youth and militarism coordinator. She worked with young people to direct them toward nonviolent futures.

With a focus on offering high school students options other than joining the military, Andrew visited schools, often setting up next to military recruiters.

"There were really a lot of kids happy to see the other side presented," she said.

Andrew also made sure U.S. Rep. Pat Toomey, R-Lehigh Valley, knew that she and 10 others thought the invasion of Iraq was unnecessary and illegal. It was the last chance to focus on the issue of peace, she said.

The Lepoco group staged a sit-in March 21, 2003, at Toomey's office on Hamilton Boulevard in Allentown. They insisted on speaking with the congressman, who was in Washington, D.C. Though he called the office, he would not speak with the protesters, Andrew said.

When the protesters refused to leave at closing time, all 11 were arrested, including Andrew, the youngest in the group.

"It was my first, and so far only, arrest situation," she said. "Being shackled to a 60-year-old woman in jail was an interesting place to find ourselves."

Though many people will look at Andrew and see her as an over-the-top activist, she does not see herself that way. Her involvement with social issues comes from her grandparents, she said, and from a very traditional place.

Taking part in a sit-in and encouraging people to see the importance of the Steel isn't strange -- it's democracy, she said.

"People have really strayed from feeling people should be part of democracy," she said.

For Andrew, that democracy, and her lawyer who helped her after she was arrested in Toomey's office, inspired her to go to law school.

Andrew again left Bethlehem at the end of July to begin a four-year detour at DePaul University's College of Law. She hopes to find a career in public interest law.

"She's more than just a tattoo," said Save Our Steel's Kramer. "We need more lawyers like her."

But don't think she'll be gone for long. Andrew expects to return to the city after she and her husband finish school.

Will she return will another tattoo?

"I'm not really interested," she said.