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Captain Sharie's Servant's Heart

ssmith
Explorer B

Performance Thumbnail.jpgCaptain Sharie Wilkins has been part of the Southwest family as a Pilot for 16 years, but she has lived with a Servant’s Heart her whole life. Not only does Wilkins show an abounding amount of loyalty to her career and her Cohearts at Southwest, but also to the charity work that she does when she’s not in the cockpit.

 

 

 Dallas-based Wilkins volunteer work is nationwide, and she calls Oklahoma home. Here she volunteered for Reason to Believe, a Christian-based nonprofit riding center. The organization focused on helping women and children dealing with difficult situations. Although Reason to Believe is now closed, Wilkins dedicated herself to volunteering here with her passion to serve.

 

While helping at the riding center, Wilkins was doing work for another organization Called Hope 4 Women International, which is headquartered in Phoenix. This program was developed in 2006 to empower women in Uganda who are suffering.

 

Within H4W is the Dress a Girl Around the World program, which Wilkins also partakes in. This group works to sew beautifully handmade dresses, and send or deliver them around the world to children in need. Dress a Girl began in October 2009 and since then has distributed more than 450,000 dresses to 82 different countries.

 

“So many people make this program a reality for these children,” said Wilkins. “Some of these dresses going overseas could be the only dress that a receiving little girl will ever own.”

 

Wilkins said she was blessed to be able to combine these two experiences, as each organization taught her so much that she could apply and use with the other organization.

 

“Knowledge and awareness of the issues that these women and children are facing is extremely important to me,” said Wilkins.

 

Doing work for these two organizations wasn’t enough for Wilkins, who is always looking to put her Servant’s Heart to good use. Her next step was incorporating her family’s business into her charity work. Wilkins’ son owned a coffee company he had started up after college called Flatlander Coffee Co. After he informed his mom that he was going to sell the company, she knew she could take over and use Flatlander to raise money for her women and children.

 

Wilkins younger son was living in Colombia at this time, and his wife had established relations with orphanages while they were down there. Wilkins had wondered if the children needed dresses, and her son affirmed they needed everything.

 

Colombia also happens to be one of the largest coffee growers in the world. Wilkins took to developing a program where she bought coffee beans in Colombia to roast, sold the coffee, and put the proceeds back into empowering women and children in the coffee farming communities.

 

“When I drink a cup of my coffee, I understand the impact it has on the farmer, the women and the children in these communities. The relationships established are the most important thing,” said Wilkins. “Relationships are all we have and they are our hope.”

 

“There are so many people that do so much with so little,” said Wilkins. “They are a big reason why I do what I do.”

 

Wilkins encourages other Cohearts to get involved and give back, because having a Servant’s Heart gives people hope. She encourages everyone to find something they have a passion for and get involved.

 

“I come across Servant’s Hearts in almost every place I go, and as a Pilot, I travel a great deal,” said Wilkins. “They are not just within the walls of Southwest.”

 

For more information on Hope 4 Women international and Dress A Girl Around the World, visit www.h4wi.org, and to read more on Flatlander Coffee, check outwww.flatlandercoffeeco.com

2 Comments
LindseyD
Retired Community Manager

I love hearing about our Peoples' Servants Hearts. This is a great story, and we are honored to have folks like Captain Sherrie working here at Southwest Airlines. Our People really are our very best asset. 

 

Lindsey

Moderator

The Southwest Airlines Community

AaronGarrett
Explorer C

Great work, Cpt Sharie Wilkins!