4-H Stories....
Alison Sturm
Alison Sturm is a personal chef/caterer who resides in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Alison was a Unicoi County 4-H member just a few years ago. Here's her story...
Prior to telling my own 4-H story, I spent some time reading the stories posted by others. Almost everyone says they “remember it like it was yesterday” and tell detailed accounts of what happened. While there are a lot of moments that I do remember clearly, I’m sure I’ve forgotten so much more. I guess as a kid I wasn’t aware that what I was doing at the time was making a positive impact on my life. I participated in all of the activities offered at the local level and even won some competitions at the county level. I especially enjoyed the county and state fairs. It was a chance for me to skip a day of school and bake biscuits in the fair building for all the passers-by to sample. Years later, I toured the fair building and saw the kids baking biscuits and I couldn’t believe how young they were! I don’t ever remember being that young. The fairs were also a time for me to accumulate blue ribbons for my baking talents. I still have the album where I so painstaking arranged the ribbons and labeled each one. I always did enjoy the cooking/baking activities the most.
I dropped out of the 4-H program when I went into high school and I have often regretted that. After graduation, I went to college part-time and finally after nearly 10 years, I graduated with a BS in Business Management. I had been working for a Fortune 500 company for nearly 7 years and although I made very good money, my heart was not in my job. I did a lot of soul searching to try and find what it was that I truly wanted to do. I stumbled across my album full of blue ribbons one day while cleaning a long forgotten closet, and as I sat there thumbing through it, I realized that 4-H was the prime time in my life. I looked at all of those blue ribbons for the cooking related activities and finally found the answer to the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”
I left my job and started my own business of being a personal chef and caterer. Even though I didn’t realize it at the time, my activities in 4-H were laying a path to help me find myself later in life. My husband and I recently were transferred to another state and it was a very hard move for me because I had to leave my established business behind. I have restarted the business here in my new state and in a desperate attempt to make friends and become involved; I joined the Garland County Extension Homemakers Club. The ladies welcomed me with open arms and after finding out what I “used” to do, they encouraged me to help form a new, non-traditional EHC Club called Cooks ‘R Us. I helped with a 4-H workshop during the holidays and once again, I felt like that little girl I once was. Our cooking club has been asked to teach cooking workshops to the 4-H'ers and I am so excited about having the chance to pass along my love of cooking and in possibly creating another Julia Childs or Wolfgang Puck!
So, my 4-H story is a bit different from everyone else’s since my memories of “just like it was yesterday” were stored away in that long forgotten closet and thankfully recovered, dusted off, and put to good use again!