Meet MSU Extension Master Gardener Catherine Stedman of Alpena County
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EmailWith 45 years in the program and a new Gold Badge, this volunteer is no hurry to stop.
Meet Catherine Stedman, an Advanced MSU Extension Master Gardener (EMG) who has an incredible 46 continuous years with the MSU Extension Master Gardener Program®. Stedman is one of our longest standing MSU EMG volunteers in the program, which is celebrating 50 years in 2027.
A strong and steady volunteer for many years, Stedman earned her 1,000-hour Gold Badge in 2026. Sarah Rautio, PhD, state leader for the MSU EMG Program, and Patricia Makins, MSU EMG support staff in Montmorency County, had the pleasure of awarding Stedman with her badge in person at her current project site, The Veggie Cart, a raised bed vegetable garden at the Alpena Senior Citizens Center in Alpena, Michigan.
Stedman resides in Alpena County. Originally from Oakland County, she took the MSU Extension Master Gardener training course, now called Foundations of Gardening, in 1980, soon after the program started. Once certified, Stedman spent most of her volunteer time helping gardeners with their individual questions and delivering short educational talks to the public. In 1990, she and a fellow MSU EMG who was also a coworker started a head start school garden to teach children how to grow plants, including under artificial lighting.
In 2014, Stedman retired and moved to Alpena but never lost her enthusiasm for volunteering. She acquired a passion for native plants and wildlife and spent many years leading projects and educating others at the Riparian Buffer Planting Project at Duck Park and at a Restoration of Native Flora Project on Island Park, both in Alpena. She also helped Michigan State University Extension staff with an MSU EMG training course in 2018, which brought 25 new volunteers to Alpena and surrounding counties.
Most of Stedman’s volunteer time as an MSU EMG has been spent working in vegetable gardens that grow and donate fresh produce or delivering short educational talks about, in her words, “the green world we live in.” Those green spaces are important to community vitality and health, and MSU EMGs like Stedman are helping to keep that going now and into the future.
“I am aiming for 50 years of being an Extension Master Gardener — I don't know if I will get there, but I am going to try!” – Catherine Stedman
Stedman’s current and most dedicated project, The Veggie Cart, is a food growing and donation project she assisted with for many years. This project takes place at the Alpena Senior Citizens Center, where she creates and grows many types of fresh vegetables and herbs in raised beds for the senior center’s kitchen. These gardens are also places to teach others about the benefits of growing their own food.
“I don’t know how these smaller communities in northern Michigan can make these things happen without the dedication of volunteers,” Stedman says, “and the people who volunteer in one place are often the same ones you see at another location because they are people who really care about making the lives of residents better.”
There is no doubt Stedman is one such person.
In addition to her volunteer work, Stedman has participated in many MSU EMG continuing education programs over the years, in person and online. One year, she joined 26 other MSU EMGs and their companions on an MSU EMG trip to Western Canada, where participants learned about alpine and temperate forest habitats; Japanese, Chinese, First Nation and Canadian cultures; and the effects of hotter, drier weather and climate variability on gardens and forests.
We appreciate all the hard work Catherine and so many of our MSU Extension Master Gardeners do to make Michigan a great place to live and work. Thanks, Catherine!
Learn how to become an MSU Extension Master Gardener, support the MSU Extension Master Gardener Program, and explore the Gardening in Michigan website.
