Dedication to Seguin’s Youth By Valerie Bustamante
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tudents as young as third grade came in with their backpacks hanging on their shoulders while others came in groups. They all headed straight to the classroom area inside Seguin Youth Services to start working on their homework for the day. But before making their way into the room each one of them looked up with the biggest grin and said ‘Hi Sheryl!” Some even rushing to give the matriarch of the Seguin Youth Services program the biggest bear hug. Many of them surprised to see her as she wasn’t expected to be back so early from her day job as Guadalupe County Justice of the Peace Pct. 2. Sheryl Sachtleben has seen hundreds of students come through the doors of the building at 919 N. Guadalupe Street as part of the 38 Seguin ~ Guadalupe County living
program she founded 24 years ago. Washateria In 1995, while working as a probation officer at the juvenile detention facility, Sachtleben dreamed of a program that could help at-risk youth keep their lives on track. A program that could set children up with a mentor that could help guide them through their school work as well as life. “I was there just a little short of eight years and there just happen to be the first initiative for delinquency prevention,” she said. “Washington D.C. had just come out with every state being able to design programs that would prevent kids from getting in trouble.” Sachtleben applied for several grants before earning a grant for $60,000 after only being one of two
people who had applied for the grant, she said. “I remember we had to go to the governor’s office to present our idea. We were like in this theater in front of a committee on a stage and it was really intimidating,” Sachtleben said. With the grant, Sachtleben kicked off the program in the old washateria building on San Antonio Street. “As a probation officer there were a lot of gang members in that area and that was my caseload,” she said. “Well, that building always had graffiti on it and so we always cleaned it up for the man who owned it. When I started to write the grant I asked him if he would let me use that building. We made an agreement, if I got the grant I could use it.” The owner of the former washateria agreed to let her use the building