If you’ve ever been to Creekside Christian Academy, there’s a good chance you’ve had the famous Ms. Becky’s brownies. “I know people who literally don’t touch a speck of sugar or sweets, but the second they find out she’s made brownies, they hunt them down,” says Carey Melton, Student Life and Community Engagement Director at Creekside.
If you ask baker Becky Stuart about them, the recipe isn’t “too special” except for some added vanilla and how long you bake them. But ask anybody else about them and you will get an earful. “If you put them out, they’d be gone in a heartbeat,” admits Campus Pastor Bob Rossiter.
Stuart started baking her brownies for others about 15 years ago when her daughter played volleyball at Jonesboro High School. Some of her teammates had asked for brownies, so she made some for them. “I let other people taste them and they said they were good,” she recalls. “Then anytime we had to do something at school, there had to be brownies.”
Eventually, she made some for her family, and now her nephew requests brownies at every visit. Then she brought some to Creekside for an event, and they became the talk of the school. “I just love to bake,” says Stuart, who is the volunteer coordinator at Creekside. “I don’t consider myself a great baker, but if you take time to bake them, it’s just the thought.”
In addition to making brownies for various Creekside events, like teacher appreciation meals or girls’ Bible study, she also tries to make them for her husband, Tommy, and neighbors around the holidays, and for other schools in the area at the beginning or end of the school year. She has also prepared soup and other meals for school events.
“I just do it because I love to do it,” says Stuart, who’s worked at Creekside for 20 years and been a part of it for more than 30 years, when her son Brett attended school there, followed by her two daughters, Katie and Nina. During her tenure, she’s taught home economics, assisted with mission projects, and helped wherever she was needed.
“Any event she’s involved with, even if it’s not one she’s in charge of, she’s usually the first one there and the last one out,” recalls Rossiter, adding that she also helps with sewing costumes for school plays and sports uniforms. “That’s the talent God gives to different people. The Lord uses her talents. She has the gift of help and servanthood — she sees a need and she’s going to step in and go above and beyond.”
By Michelle Floyd