By Sue Moore
The Schoolcraft 4th of July parade comes to a full stop in front of the reviewing stand to hear Sara Taylor Kowalski belt out the National Anthem, heard up and down Grand Street. She’s been doing her rendition for 13 years, when Jon Krum listened to her sing in church and asked her to kick off the parade.
She sings the Star-Spangled Banner without accompaniment over the sound system used to announce the floats as they pass by. This year, Skip Fox will take over announcing duties from Doug Flynn.
Kowalski is a soprano who is a native of Schoolcraft and a Western Michigan University music graduate. She operates Hair-N-Things Salon during the work week but is often asked to sing at weddings, baby dedications and plenty of church related gatherings. She can sing southern gospel and sings with Kids for Christ. While in college she was in Sing Out Kalamazoo for teens.
She met her husband Alex Kowalski while attending a karaoke session at Bud’s Bar in Schoolcraft some eight years ago. He works for Metal Mechanics in Schoolcraft as a control engineer and IT administrator. “He can sing, but not to me,” Sara joked. She likes to do competition shooting in her spare time – which isn’t often, as she claims to be a workaholic.