WILLIE MAE SHEFFIELD HOSTS CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION
Pictured: Willie Mae Sheffield and students
For more than 50 years, Willie Mae Sheffield has worked with educating children in this community. She has devoted her time, energy and resources to our youth, determined to make a difference in their lives. She worked with the Sarasota County School System for 26 years, co-founded the Sarasota County Educational Assistance Program (known as SCEAP), which was an after school homework assistance program, and helped started Wings Academy, a charter middle school. But it didn’t stop there: she started Five Star Girls, for young girls 8 to 14 years of age, teaching them basic life skills such as sewing, cooking and proper etiquette. Most of those young girls are in college or have graduated from college.
Sheffield has always put her heart and love into children, and continues her tradition of working with our youth but with a different twist this year. In previous years, she has invited youth into her home during the Christmas holidays teaching them how to bake cookies. But on Friday, December 20th, she took the baking to them and hosted a cookie baking celebration for the young girls in the after school program at the Salvation Army on Tuttle Avenue. These elementary-aged students received hands-on experience in baking and decorating cookies which they were able to take home to their families.
“It is such a great joy seeing the excitement of these young girls when they saw their finished product,” Sheffield said. “It’s a simple act of kindness but so meaningful to these girls.”
