Sara Anderson has had a fascinating journey...from calculus to cupcakes.
 
Here’s some math, or at least some impressive numbers: 1 store, 12 employees, 4,000 cupcakes a week. Plus 1,000 cookies. And, in a busy week, say for a holiday or those popular summer June weddings, the numbers jump to 6,000 cupcakes and 1,500 cookies.
Limaland, it’s safe to say, has embraced Sara’s Sweets.
The store’s owner and head baker, Sara Anderson, took the Rotary audience on her journey, from a high school track and field competitor who developed a love of baking, to math teacher with a side baking business, to entrepreneur.
Anderson grew up in Illinois and married her high school sweetheart, Ben Anderson. When Ben was offered a State Farm agency in Lima, the couple took the dive and moved to Ohio. 
She titled her talk “from calculus to cupcakes,” because she began her career as a math teacher for Lima City Schools. She soon started baking on the side, making some of the desserts served at The Met and opening a pop-up counter inside. The business took off, and she and her husband “took a leap of faith,” she said.
“I retired from teaching three years in,” Anderson said while laughing, and she focused full time on cupcakes. The plan was always to open a bricks-and-mortar shop, she said, but the plan was delayed just a bit when she and Ben had a baby.
Today, the store is humming. She opened the shop at 435 S. Eastown Road in December of 2015 with two part-time employees and now has 12 working for her. Some life lessons? Don’t open a cupcake store during the holiday season. Take the time to learn how to manage employees and treat them well. And, perfect a chocolate and peanut butter cupcake: The buckeye is the No. 1 seller.
Also at Rotary Monday:
Golf outing chairman Matt Otto announced the event raised nearly $40,000 for the Lima Rotary Foundation Scholarship Fund.
Club President David Frost announced the social bowling event scheduled for Aug. 6 will be rescheduled this winter.