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Among the many singer, songwriters who call Austin, Texas home is Sara Hickman, who combines her musical talent with a desire to help others.
She has recorded more than 15 albums, appeared on popular national television programs and played with some of the biggest names in the folk rock category, but she spends much of her free time volunteering for charities and lending a hand to people in need.
For Sara Hickman music is about life and life is about love.
Sara uses her concerts as a way of urging people to reach out to others and to give of themselves.
"If that music can translate with an audience and get them inspired to volunteer or inspired to think about their neighbor differently then," she says, "I feel like I have done my job."
Sara shares her love through music, but she also bakes cakes for local charity groups like Care Communities, a private charity that helps poor people with serious illnesses. She volunteers her time for the cause, sometimes working directly with people suffering from illness and sometimes taking donations over the phone.
Carly Levy helps coordinate volunteer activity at Care Communities. "The impact of our volunteers is huge," Levy said. "Mainly because we are helping people that had no idea that there are these people who wanted to help them in such a loving and honest way."
Sara Hickman's husband and two daughters work with her on many local charity projects. "I am one person and there are billions of people on this planet but I can affect the people I can touch," Hickman said. "So, I am going to do what I can with the amount of time I am given on this planet and just go for it."
She has also offered her music as a therapy for people who are dying or incapacitated.
In one case, she says she played her guitar for a three-year-old boy who had lost both his sight and hearing in an accident, but not his capacity to feel musical vibrations.
"All of a sudden his whole face changed," she said. "It went from this kind of expressionless little person to this elated little being who recognized that I was there with him. I was there with him, he wasn't alone."
Sara Hickman says she has gained a lot from such experiences and she believes other people would also find fulfillment in volunteering.
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