Technically speaking, Sherrie Mueller has been retired from Plant City High School for one year. But, with more time to spend on community endeavors, she may be busier now than she’s been in the last 16 years.
“One of my neighbors teased me that I need to get a part-time job to pay for my volunteering,” Mueller said.
The Plant City native, like the Energizer bunny, just keeps going. From planning class reunions and helping high school students with the college application process to sitting on local boards and feeding the homeless, Mueller is treating her 2015 retirement as a springboard to dive into other community needs.
“It’s rewarding,” she said. “You see you can make a difference.”
PLANT CITY FOR LIFE
Mueller’s backstory is classic Plant City: born and raised in the Winter Strawberry Capital of the World, she attended Plant City High and got involved in both athletics and extracurriculars. She was voted president of the Class of 1971 and was a cheerleader and a competitive swimmer.
She became a Strawberry Queen in 1971, after winning the pageant, and eventually went to University of Florida to study accounting before coming back to Plant City.
While working as a CPA, Mueller raised her two sons. She became familiar with the college application process and with NCAA rules, having worked to get her sons into UF, and found she enjoyed the process.
Mueller enjoyed it enough to volunteer at Plant City High for seven years, helping then-college and career counselor Susan Sullivan — now the school’s principal. When Sullivan left in 2000, principal David Steele asked Mueller if she was interested in a full-time position.
Thus began a 15-year career which saw Mueller, by her own estimate, help thousands of Plant City High students figure out where they were going after high school. She was also a primary sponsor of the Interact Club, formerly known as the Civinettes.
“I loved it,” Mueller says. “I’m still helping, even though I’m retired. I still get calls.”
She retired in 2015 to spend more time with her six grandchildren and also to get more into physical fitness.
GIVING IT HER ALL
It was obvious to those in Mueller’s circle she would want to jump right into community service after retirement.
“Everybody said, ‘Sherrie, don’t get onto all these boards yet,’” Mueller said. “‘Give it a year.’ But it didn’t happen.”
She is currently a board member of the United Food Bank of Plant City, Bruton Memorial Library and South Florida Baptist Hospital Foundation. Mueller is active at First Baptist Church. She recently planned the Plant City High Class of 1971’s 45th reunion, which was held Saturday, Sept. 24, and is also helping with Empty Bowls for the food bank.
Thirty years ago, she and Barbara Bowden created the Strawberry Queens booth for the Florida Strawberry Festival, which lets visitors see the Strawberry Queens of years past. That project has since been passed on to Marsha Passmore and Dodie White.
But working for the food bank may be her greatest passion.
“There’s no reason for somebody to be hungry,” Mueller said. “We need more people to get involved in that aspect.”
Just as she did with her Plant City High students, Mueller gives every project she works on everything she has.
“When I do something, I’m doing it 100%,” she said.