Meeting Recap

“I sold the berries, not Shari,” said Shari Fitzpatrick. She was talking about her transition from founder of world-famous Shari’s Berries to founder of the soon-to-be world-famous Berry Factory.

Fitzpatrick, who founded Shari’s Berries in Sacramento in 1989 with a $1,500 credit card advance, was Rotary Club of Sacramento’s featured luncheon speaker Dec. 6 at the Radisson Hotel.

Introduced by chair of the day Oleta Lambert, Fitzpatrick recounted how she got into the strawberry dipping business, built it into a tremendous success and then suddenly found herself on the outside. She began by making gifts for prospective clients of her brother’s Los Angeles mortgage brokerage. Never compromising on quality or service, she quickly built the company’s reputation nationally. But with growth came unwelcome changes.

“When I first started, I loved what I was doing. But as we grew, I found myself in more and more meetings and having less and less opportunity to be creative.” Eventually she was pushed to the sidelines by investors.

“I’m not at liberty to go into the details, but I lost control,” said the Oregon native who first picked berries in her father’s Klamath Falls strawberry patch. “I trusted the wrong people and wound up selling the business in 2006. But I just sold the berries, not Shari.”

And that’s a good thing, because she was able to hang onto the original Sacramento “bricks and mortar” portion of the business and now is free to unleash her legendary creativity. She’s turned the Sacramento business into the Berry Factory (online sales only) and expanded the line of fresh fruit to include dipped apple slices. She shortly will have a new line of frozen dipped fruits (strawberries, cherries, raspberries and bananas with peanut butter) hitting the shelves of local grocery stores. And in about a month, her first book, Berried in Chocolate, will hit the shelves of bookstores across the country.

“The book is a combination of lessons learned and some secret recipes for success,” she told Rotarians. Judging by the quality of the treats she brought for Rotarians, the book will be worth the read.

Hal Shipley, former District Governor, was introduced by president Scot Sorensen as the Club’s new interim executive director. A Clarksburg resident and long-time member of the Elk Grove club, Hal replaces Jan Gage until the search committee can name a permanent replacement. Gage, an Auburn resident, ended her short tenure as E.D. to accept an administrative position with Placer County.

Don Baird provided the thought for the day and Kim Rhinehelder of Eskaton Foundation was the meeting sponsor. Next meeting is Dec. 13 at the Radisson with Scott Syphax of Nehemiah Corporation scheduled to talk about Township 9.