Tia Sheri's
Computer Learning Center
The last time I saw my good friend Sheri was nearly twenty-nine years to the day of our high school graduation. Sheri Gillette and her twin sister Cindi were just amazing people. Everyone like the Gillette girls and no one ever had anything bad to say about either of them. In July 2009, we were having our twenty-nine year high school reunion and I made a point to see Sheri who I had learned had been stricken with cancer.
In January of 2009, Sheri was diagnosed with breast cancer. Sheri went through a double mastectomy followed by radiation and a course of Chemo set to last more than a year. The high school reunion, a personal family reunion and a film festival that my documentary was entered into were all set to occur in the same area and in the same month. This gave me plenty of reason and time to catch up with my long lost friends. To my surprise, Sheri was even more amazing than I had remembered; Sheri has two wonderful children in college and has spent countless hours volunteering with the town's school sports program ever since her children were young.
Because of Sheri being so amazing, I was very interested in her response to my documentary, which is based on international volunteering. It took several days for Sheri to make time to watch my show because of her busy volunteer schedule.
When Sheri first saw my documentary "Save the World", she called me crying and told me that this is what she wanted to do with her life. Sheri told me that my show was the most heart touching show she had ever seen. Sheri said she could feel my passion and fell in love with my heart and my work. Sheri made me promise to take her with me when she got better. Sheri said just knowing she could travel the world and help poor children everywhere would give her the strength to go through Chemo and get better. Sheri and I talked for Hundreds of hours about programs I have or know of in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Africa, and Mexico.
One program that Sheri was especially interesteed in was a computer-learning center that I promised to someday put in a church in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Sheri wanted to start with this program now but was too sick to travel. I told Sheri that if she helped me organize the computer-learning center from the States, I would go there and put it in so that it could be up and running by the time she got better. I know Sheri will get better and I think that having a learning center with her name on it will help her determination and recovery. Tia Sheri's Computer Learning Center of Cabo San Lucas was born. This November 2009, I plan to travel to Cabo San Lucas and bring some volunteers, a little money, and a pallet load of computers and supplies to start Tia Sheri's Computer Learning Center. I look forward to personally bringing Sheri down to introduce her to people that will already know her face and her name as an amazing person that, while deathly ill, thought only of the children Thousands of miles away and made such a great effort to make their lives better.
