TREATING THE COMMUNITY: Scranton woman recognized for creating church program

By SARAH STORTZ
s.stortz@carrollspaper.com

Behind the cash register at Anderson Shoes in Carroll, Erica Burris can be seen offering assistance to anyone looking to find the right pair of shoes.

However, once Wednesday comes around, Burris is spending her evening at Scranton United Methodist Church helping visitors find the right item they need.
Burris was recently recognized by Homemakers Furniture for her work at the program, named one of their 2022 Community Champions. Burris was nominated by Hunter Schulte, her niece.

“I think Erica deserves to be recognized for her willingness to help her community. Anyone that knows Erica knows how involved she is,“ her niece said in the nomination. “She hates to see people without and will do anything it takes to make sure that everyone has all the essentials.”
The program, called Sweet Treats, came to existence once the COVID-19 pandemic swept through the country. At this time, Burris said the church needed to touch base with the community somehow.

With kids being unable to go outside and play with each other, the program started handing out free ice cream cones every Wednesday around 4 p.m.
As time went by, local kids were missing out on summer traditions such as going to the carnival, with the program growing into offering “little knick knacks and goodie bags.”

By the time the season of fall arrived, many families struggled to get school supplies, so the team offered the necessary items, such as backpacks, notebooks, and pencils. For holidays, it also provided turkeys for Thanksgiving meals. While it had a strong focus on kids in the beginning, Burris said the program is designed for everyone.

“It’s not just kids, we have adults, parents, grandparents, single people just wanting to get into the community and just be with one another, restoring that hope and faith that everyone seemed to be losing during the COVID time and it just kept continuing,” Burris said.

During this difficult period for the community, Burris said she felt it was important to restore hope for everyone.

“I’m a very compassionate person, and with me being in customer service all this time, you get to know each child or family,” Burris said. “I’m very big in religion and mental health and taking care of one another, and when you take everything away from people, it kind of hits home with everyone.”

Burris is originally from Coon Rapids, but she decided to raise her family in Scranton, saying she likes the small-town environment where everyone knows everybody.

“Everyone’s family, and it’s not just a saying, it literally is,” Burris said. “You care literally about everyone that’s in your community and everyone wanted to help.”

Burris’ drive to help others elevated after suffering a tragedy in her family. Eleven years ago, Burris lost her younger brother, Shawn Muhr, while he was serving overseas in Afghanistan. Muhr was 26 when he died.
Burris identifies as Catholic, but she got involved with the Scranton United Methodist Church so they could build a religious factor into their healing.

“They helped me through tragedy and hard times and to mentally get through that,” Burris said. “Having faith is a big way to get through a lot of tragedy. . .it helps me teach the kids how to get through it as well.”

After dealing with the difficult loss, Burris learned she either needed to decide on living a happy life, or she could remain feeling sad. Once she let her anger go, Burris said she wasn’t going to make excuses for whatever she needs to do.

“That’s the kind of personality that I chose to go for, and it’s led me in a very good direction when I learned not to make excuses,” Burris said. “I do whatever God has put in me for a challenge.”

While Burris said she feels very proud to be recognized, Burris said it’s always a shock whenever she receives an award related to volunteerism, feeling that everyone should be this way.

“We’re such a small town, but we got recognized,” Burris said. “We are stronger together than anyone else. I’m very blessed, to say the least.”