If you love live music and open mics, or simply have lived in Sedona long enough, you must have met April Payne.

Bubbly and friendly, she is one of those women who brightens the room with her presence and brings out the best in others as a role model. When elected as a member of the Governing Board of the Sedona-Oak Creek School District — she is running uncontested for one of three open seats — this young mom of two will be ready and eager to pour her heart and soul into improving the public school system.

A Sedona native, then-April Holman was exposed from her early years to the beauty of the land, art and community. She grew up on Brewer Road in the 1980s when there wasn’t much development and the creek was much more accessible.

“My grandmother had an amber red wolf dog and I can still hear his barking, and see him jumping from rock to rock, chasing dragonflies,” she remembers.

Saint Patrick’s Parades with their spectacular floats, the community picnics with the families of the volunteer fire department and the community Easter Egg Hunt are also among her fondest childhood memories.

It was during her early years that she got the travel bug and decided to make it a lifetime pursuit. Every summer, a young April would travel with her mother and father in their tiny motorhome, sometimes for months at a time to different national parks.

“Growing up in Sedona, I learned to appreciate how beautiful our planet is,” she shared. “It’s such an exciting way to look at life, knowing there is so much to explore and so much beauty out there to see.”

She went to Brewer Road School, one of the smaller public elementary schools. Unlike some other schools, it fostered a progressive environment. They had portfolios instead of grades, and students had to demonstrate what they had learned throughout the year. She was also in one of the first classes to graduate from Sedona Red Rock High School. From there she went to the W.A. Franke Honors College at Arizona State University.

“Sedona is a small town, but because it’s such a unique place, it attracts wonderful people to live here. A major influence were my school teachers. They gave me a love of learning and this is the greatest gift that a teacher can give to their students.”

Art As Meditation

It is in college that April met her future husband, Jake Payne, a gifted lead guitar player. They both share a deep love for music and live events. Isabelle, now 11, the couple’s elder child, takes after her dad.

“Isabelle just has it. She just finds the chords and plays the songs she hears. It brings so much joy to the household to hear her practicing,” said Payne, who loves to dance and oil paint in her little art studio by the creek. With a major in religious studies, she is a self-taught artist.

“Painting is a lot like meditating, it turns off your thoughts and time is a different experience,” she explains. Payne dreams about owning her own art gallery one day and being able to carve out more time for her passion and learn how to paint en plein air. For now her children, husband, family and their family business are her priority. However, she always makes time for her spiritual practice. To her, spirituality is a big part of living in Sedona and puts her in touch with her essence and the role she is here to play.

Payne grew up in a deeply Catholic family. She loved going to St. John Vianney Catholic Church and listening to the choir singing. Those songs are powerful prayers to her.

Sedona Is Family

Payne has three younger sisters and as they all begin having children, the family grows bigger year after year and the holidays are more and more fun. She is very fond of Christmas, but Dia de Los Muertos is also a special holiday. She loves to dress up, light candles and make altars to honor departed loved ones. It’s a celebration that she shares with her children, showing them how to honor and connect with our dear ones who have passed away.

“My favorite thing about living in Sedona is being close to my biological family and my chosen family — three of my dear childhood friends live in Sedona right now and being part of each others’ day-to-day lives is the greatest gift,” Payne shared.

Devotion to her family is the common thread that animates everything she does. Payne started working full time for her family business about 20 years ago, managing the commercial properties owned by her dad, Bill Holman. It is her love for the community of Sedona, and desire to help the community she was raised in, that prompted her to run for a seat on the Sedona-Oak Creek School District Governing Board.

“Being a mother and having two young children in the local school system gives me a unique perspective that’s not on the board right now. In a social setting I’m able to talk to other moms and dads and hear their opinions,” said Payne, who has big plans as a SCOSD board member. She wants to strengthen the school community by bringing families together, make a better use of the land and the campuses, and make teachers feel valued and cared for.

“I want to reach out to all the teachers and find out what they want,” Payne explained. I want them to feel irreplaceable and stay in our district for many years to come. This gives a sense of stability and grounding to children.”

Gift of Womanhood

To Payne, Sedona is a wonderful place to be a woman because of the easy access to nature.

“Being able to go out and experience peace and quiet by myself is one of my saving graces. There are trails where I barely pass a person for hours and hours. As a woman, the peacefulness and connection with nature is such a gift,” she feels.

Payne believes women need to gather and support each other more, celebrate the cycles of nature and their gifts. This is a way to tap in to their power so they may make a positive impact on their communities.

“Our major role as women is to help create community. We have lived in such an individualistic society for so long, and a shift is happening where we must prioritize our lives differently, considering everything and everyone around us. There is a big shift that needs to happen to get us through these challenging times,” said Payne, a firm believer in the health, vitality, and strength of the planet. Although humans might not make it through the next few hundreds years, if they don’t change their ways, the earth will survive, she said.

As long as women like Payne choose to lead by the power of example, chances are high that both our planet and the human species will not only survive but also thrive.

This story was first published in Larson Newspapers’ Lifestyles of Sedona magazine, fall 2022 edition.