Believer, Wife, Mom/5, Adoption
Photographer, Writer, Filmmaker Songwriter, Charity Event
& Show Producer
About Sandy Arena
Sandy Arena is an artistic soul who dabbles in many artistic, charity and event management pursuits. She is a portrait, movement and event photographer, and a writer, filmmaker & songwriter. She is a home school educator and teaches a woman's history class called Finding Rubies to home school girls. She is the founder and director of the Miss Worth More Nation Pageant for Girls in Foster Care. Sandy is the wife to Sam Arena & mom to five beautiful children - Alexis, Caleb, Clyde, Claudia and Annaliese. She is an avid runner having completed a full & half marathon in her lifetime. Sandy was a former fitness instructor, as well as a newspaper journalist and editor, and a food and restaurant publicist in the greater New York & Philadelphia areas. She is the author of the book Yahweh Ballet: Learning to Dance by Faith and filmmaker to the recently released feature length film Arise Sweet Sarah where she advocates for peace and healing for women hurt by abortion. She previously traveled with her live show The Life Ballet throughout the United States and into Canada, and has been a featured speaker at events and colleges, and on radio and television. In all her endeavors, Sandy is passionate about sharing the joys of motherhood & family, as well as proclaiming Jesus. She also juggles duties as a basketball, football, dance, modeling and pageant momager! She was named as one of the 175 Empowered Women in Rochester in honor of the city's 175th Anniversary by the Rochester Genesee Valley Club.
Work and Ministry Highlights
My early career included working as a director of public relations for a nonprofit organization, a lifestyle editor for a weekly newspaper, and an account representative for an international commercial news wire. I went on to work as a freelance writer and publicist specializing in food/chef publicity in the Philadelphia and greater New York areas under the company I founded called Envisage Public Relations.
In 2002, I moved to the upstate NY area when marrying my amazing husband Sam Arena. In 2006, our family opened a ballet studio and Christian dance company for our oldest daughter Alexis - who was 13 years old at the time - called Yahweh Ballet. It was a call from God and a love gift for her. I ran the studio from 2006 until 2011 and during that time wrote and directed several ballets including a ballet that traveled through the United States and into Canada called The Life Ballet. During this time, I also developed my God's Girl Princess Pageant and Program, and founded Conner's Game of are in honor of Conner Newcomb who is now with Jesus. During this time, we also received funding from the Greater Rochester Health Foundation to host free community dance lasses partnering with an inner city school. We worked extensively with youth at risk in our city during this time sharing our love of dance and sharing the good news of Jesus. The greatest gift we received from this endeavor was meeting our twins Clyde and Claudia who we have now adopted into our family forevermore.
The Life Ballet has been turned into a film adaptation called "Arise Sweet Sarah" with our association with Verb Records. The film was released in September 2015 in Rochester, NY and has been featured at film festivals and is available on Amazon and other internet sites. We made Arise Sweet Sarah to reach more people with our message and beliefs through film. We believe life begins at conception and that all human beings are precious and deserving of basic rights of life and liberty. Many women suffer after abortion, and we believe in nonviolent solutions in crisis. Our show and film help people hurting after abortion find peace and healing.
I completed a leadership training program in July 2012 in post abortive recovery through Abortion Recovery International's Share Symposium (ARIN) and now serve as a New York State ambassador for ARIN. I have been a guest speaker at prolife events and college chapels, and on radio and television including: Breaking Christian News, Ethel Chadwick's Bagels and Blessings, The Miracle Channel in Lethbridge, Canada, TCT.TV, Scribal Advance Radio, Day Gardner's Radio, Monday Minute, Kim Ketola Cradle My Heart Radio, Break for Life, and Bethel College's Student Chapel where I shared my testimony of regret after abortion. I also traveled around the country sharing The Life Ballet live production in Upstate NY, Pennsylvania, Washington DC, Indiana, Nashville, TN, Colorado, Texas, California and Canada. I hope to now tour with the film, share my story and testimony, and maybe bring a live performer or two from the film. I also hope to continue working more intimately with people suffering after abortion through healing dance workshops.
I am a songwriter who has written many faith-inspired songs and who wrote much of the original music for The Life Ballet and Arise Sweet Sarah. In 2009, I was named as one of the 175 Empowered Women in Rochester in honor of the city's 175th Anniversary by the Rochester Genesee Valley Club.
