Sharon Sturm earns prestigious ‘Spirit of Springfield’ award
Sharon Sturm is recipient of the 2016 Spirit of Springfield award given by the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce at the organization’s annual meeting Monday evening. The award is given to honor and applaud the outstanding and often unrecognized efforts of community members.
Sharon’s work has extended to all areas of our community and touched many lives during the 38 years she and husband Ron have resided in Springfield.
“I volunteer because I care about the organizations, my church, my friends, and to help extend a helping hand to residents, hoping to help the progress of our community that we call home,” Sharon said during a recent interview.
The Sturms came to Springfield in 1978 when they purchased the former Hoyt Funeral Service which they owned and operated until their retirement in 2004. Sharon didn’t quit, however, when they retired from business. “I like to be with people and work with people, hoping to share whatever time and talents I have. I hope to pay forward the kindnesses I have received over the years,” she said. “Now in retirement, I have more time available to volunteer and I care.”
Sharon realizes personal benefits from her service to community. “I enjoy the friendships, and the warm, fuzzy feeling I get from helping others. I love to see the smiles from a kindness. To make someone’s day better makes my day better,” Sharon said, and she acknowledges personal growth in knowledge of everyday learning experiences and everyday living.
Sharon began her involvement in our community with the Jaycee Women and St. Raphael Church soon after coming to Springfield. “Ron and I were involved in Jaycees and our church in Wells,” she commented. “What better way to get to know community than working together.”
The Springfield businesswoman served several terms on the Springfield Chamber Commerce board of directors and is a past president of the organization.
At St. Raphael Catholic Church she is a Eucharistic minister, is a member of the Council of Catholic Women (CCW) of which she is a past board member, and was chairman of Group F. She makes baptism garments for the newest members of the parish. She served as parish fall festival committee chairman for the treasure auction, makes items for the festival craft sale, and helps with church decorating. “I love working at parish functions and especially the festival when all the people work together. Work draws people together,” she noted. Sharon is an annual worker in the St. Raphael food concessions stand at Farmfest, and assists in serving funeral luncheons. She is one of the “Poppy Seed Cake Ladies” who brings the favorite cakes to the parish festival, Farmfest, and luncheons. She taught seventh-grade religious education classes several years when her daughters were growing up, and has been a strong supporter of St. Raphael Catholic School and its parents’ organization. Her favorite memory of her time teaching religious education was a visit with Bishop Raymond Lucker during a field trip to the New Ulm Diocese Pastoral Center where they learned about the connection of St. Raphael Parish with the Diocese, the Archdiocese, the American Church and the International Church. “The kids sat on the floor in the Bishop’s office. Bishop Lucker, wearing a flannel shirt and blue jeans, had just come in after working in his garden. “It was good for the kids to see him in that natural setting,” she remembered.
Sharon is a member of St. John’s Lutheran Home Auxiliary and a past board member. She delivered mail to residents, assisted with fund-raising events, and she continues to volunteer at St. John Lutheran Home, now mainly in the beauty shop where she pampers the women residents by setting and combing hairstyles. She has done manicures at The Maples. She was a member of the Springfield Hospital Auxiliary.
A member of the Community Education Committee of the Spring-field School District, Sharon has been instructor for community education classes. “I learned from Delores Lindley how to make quillows (combination quilt and pillow) and then I taught a class for a couple of years.” Currently, Sharon is teaching water fitness with classes at the Microtel pool.
Sharon was a member of the Task Force for the Springfield Area Community Center that worked on the capital campaign, planning and promoting the center and helping with design and decorating, and she served 18 years on the Community Facilities Committee. “That was a lot of work,” Sharon recalled, but acknowledged that it was her favorite community project. “We needed that center for our community. So many events were going out of town and we felt that was detrimental to our community. We wanted a beautiful, functional facility that promotes community development and growth, and thanks to a generous community, we were able to get that.” She recalled trips to other communities to study building designs, attending many meetings for two years before the community center was built. She went shopping for dishes, kitchen equipment, and other furnishings. During those first couple of years the board assisted with many chores at the facility and often rolled up their sleeves to scrub and polish in the building, plant flowers and weed the gardens, plan fund-raisers, prepare and serve food for children’s Harvest Fun Night, the Home and Garden Show, and other fund-raising events. Sharon was chairman of the Harvest Fun Night activities. “We wanted to have an event for children so that they knew the building was for them, too,” she said. She made arrangements for entertainment and food, pumpkins for painting, wrote grants that were successful in financing entertainment so that it was a free event for families, secured the help of the SHS National Honor Society and Scouts to help with games, contracted with professional stage entertainment, and prepared and served food. Although no longer serving on the Community Facilities Committee, she continues to plant and tend the flower beds in Riverside Park and by the Municipal Swimming Pool.
Sharon was a Girl Scout leader when her daughters were in Scouting. “We used to meet in the basement of our home and work on projects,” she remembered. She served as chaperone on high school music trips. “It was fun to see the kids in different settings,” she said. “One sees a different side when they’re in competition. They always performed so well and we were so proud of them.”
Sharon and husband Ron always look forward to volunteering at the American Legion, waiting on tables and serving food at steak fries and fund-raising events, working in cleanup, etc.
Sharon has served as an election judge since the 1980s. “The first time I worked as a counter in the basement of the old public library. “We counters came in at 8 o’clock at night, placed the ballots in stacks of 25, and we counted them by hand,” she recalled. “The current counting machines are wonderful,” she noted.
Sharon was always among the first to offer help wherever and whenever it was needed . . . and she continues to do so. She remembers helping with sandbagging at the Vigorena Feed Plant along the Big Cottonwood River during spring flooding; and working in the kitchen at St. Raphael Church preparing food that was delivered and served at Comfrey for volunteers who helped with cleanup after the 1998 tornado.
Sharon is a frequent volunteer when the Red Cross Bloodmobile came to town.
She has delivered Meals on Wheels for many years and continues to do so.
Sharon is a friend to Springfield Community Theatre and has supported and assisted with work behind the scenes at various theatre productions through the years.
She is a member of the Springfield Golf Club and recalls serving luncheons at Ladies Days, cleaning and decorating the club house, and working at fund-raising events and tournaments. She continues to care for plants on the golf course.
Besides volunteering, Sharon worked full-time as a homemaker, wife and mother and assisting husband Ron in the funeral business,
The Sturms are parents of two daughters, both who live at Alexandria. Sara works as a Design Writer for Tastefully Simple in the company headquarters at Alexandria, is married to Eric Gronholz, who works for Demand Chain Systems, and they are parents a daughter, Emma, a freshman at Alexandria High School; and Katie is Senior Vice President and Foundation Executive Director at Knute Nelson Care Center at Alexandria, is married to Chad Perry, who is RF Engineer for Verizon Wireless, and they are parents of a daughter, Maya, a second-grader at St. Mary’s Catholic School, and son, Bennett, 2½ years.
Sharon received the telephone call informing her that she was chosen for the 2016 Spirit of Springfield Award while she and husband Ron were grocery shopping in Orange Beach, Alabama, where they spend a couple of months each winter. “I was surprised, overwhelmed and humbled,” she said. And she burst into tears. “I felt very honored to be chosen for the award,” she added.
“I don’t do those things to get recognition,” she said. “I don’t really think much about volunteering,” she said. “I just do it.”