WWW arkcity.net

By FOSS FARRAR
Staff Writer

She lit up the stage when she danced; she lit up the world when she smiled.

Jodi Sanderholm lived a full life in 19 short years, said the Rev. Charles Grant, who officiated at a memorial service in her honor Tuesday morning.

About 1,800 people of all ages filled W.S. Scott Auditorium for the service. They included Sanderholm's family and friends, students and their parents, police officers, city and school officials, and business people.

Many of her fellow dancers from the Ark City Dance studio attended the ceremony. Some carried flowers in honor of Jodi.

Acting Police Chief Sean Wallace and several other police officers who have worked to find answers to the mystery of Sanderholm's disappearance and death gave up their seats on the auditorium floor to Jodi's loved ones.

The officers stood throughout the ceremony after her family, relatives and friends walked down the center aisle shortly after the ceremony began at 11 a.m.

The only applause throughout the service came when Grant, pastor of the First United Methodist Church in Ark City, recognized the officers for their work on the Sanderholm case.

Sanderholm went missing Jan. 5, where she was last seen at the local Subway restaurant. A few days later, a search for her was expanded to southeastern Cowley County and included six law enforcement agencies.

Her car was found Jan. 9 at the bottom of Cowley State Fishing Lake, and her body was found the same day, about eight miles away. Her death has been ruled a homicide.

Tuesday's ceremony was a celebration of her life, but speakers made reference to the tragedy of her death.

"Let us look to the light of assurance that Jodi is with God," said Stephen Bailey in an opening prayer. "We confess before you that our hearts are full with questions: Why her? Why so young?"

Sanderholm's obituary was read by Brad Vogele: She was an Ark City native, attended Arkansas City schools and graduated from Ark City High School in 2006. She was one of four valedictorians in the class.

She was taking classes in pre-pharmacy as a Cowley College freshman. While at Cowley, she was a member of the Cowley Tigerette Danceline.

"God gave Jodi the innate ability to dance," Grant said. "I think, for Jodi, dance was life."

As one of two Universal Dance Association instructors chosen from Kansas, she traveled throughout the state to various studios to teach young women to dance, he said.

Vogele said he had served as Sanderholm's youth pastor.

"She was very committed and one of the most consistent people I've ever met in my life," Vogele said. "She always had a smile; always."

Sanderholm was a great example to others, he said. "I pray we all could have a Jodi-like attitude so we could be an example to the community, the state and nation."

Her smile was the number one memory people have of Jodi, said Grant. She was a dedicated student who never made a grade lower than an A in school, but she did have some quirks.

"How many of you know that Jodi liked to blow up things in chemistry lab?" Grant said. "We hear a lot about how perfect she was but it's nice to know she had a few quirks."

As the little girls Sanderholm taught at Ark City Dance would tell you, Jodi was "very, very pretty," he said. She worked hard at being pretty and being well dressed.

"Jodi had a wonderful life," Grant said. "Her life centered around dancing and studying ... Her family, her friends that's what her life centered around."

Toward the end of the ceremony, a CD recording of a song entitled "Dance" was played. Dave Parks, a country music singer-songwriter of Nashville who formerly lived in Oxford, sang the song and wrote it with his father, Randy Parks, of Oxford, especially for Jodi on the occasion of her death.

"Everybody loves you, everybody misses you," the song goes. "We never got to say goodbye; we never got to understand just why. But you are in our hearts every time the music starts. We'll think of you and celebrate the chance to dance."