ladies and gentlemen, will you now please welcome to the stage. sheila, with donna brazile

brazile. oh, hello, everyone. oh yeah, yeah, yeah. well, we have such a big audience and i would like come up close please. this is filling up and well before i sit down, i to just say how pleased or honored i am to introduce a phenomenal woman sheila johnson and is a woman who have blazed so many trails. she's an entrepreneur. she's a philanthropist. she's in the hospitality business. in fact all of my decorating ideas have come from. oh, right. because she understands people humanity when. you think of the arts, you should think of sheila johnson

of course television entertainment. she's been a producer of documentaries films and now you know she, hosts an amazing film fest in middleburg, virginia. so i am deeply honored that i get a chance to spend some time with sheila. the name of this, i guess in the program books, women of wisdom, that she's wise woman here. and the first african american female billionaire and god knows knows and we're going to talk about sheila's life, her journey, because if you haven't read her book, you should consider right now. just go ahead. say, i got the money. i to read this book. all right. and now i will tell why sheila, first of all, thank you for being who you are thank you for

being phenomenal woman. and as you can tell i came with my mardi gras stuff, but i want you to know that you are going to receive what i call the red pump award. okay. here's your. oh, wow, red pump. thank you. i even know what you were going to wear, but look, this, sheila, you have earned a girl. you have earned it, and you've earned it. i love it because you have been very intentional with your life. absolutely. the three acts. but i got to start by asking you, who says today is, february 1st. and some of you might not know. oh, it's groundhog day. no, valentine's present, no, not mardi gras. black history month. we've got the whole month. so sheila. is a trailblazer for women, for

americans but during this unique where the theme is celebrating black culture black art you been someone who prayed helped to create it to create it to expand it to market it. sheila what black history month in terms of today, what does it mean to you? what is black history? a black history month really puts a spotlight on people of color. we're never celebrated. the other 11 months out of the year. we try, we try. but it's a shame that we have to use one month to really on the achievements of black folks. and that's a shame. and it's the time where i get called the most viewed speeches to be able to do anything, but it's just that one month where i think there's a real focus throughout the entire nation

where we're able to celebrate our sheroes and our heroes. that's right. and people of zero zero is, you. this book has so many different layers. and in the book there are three at. so i want to start with the first act right because that was your upbringing that was that's how you found why but it also made your life more complicated in many ways can you tell us about that first act. yeah. what we're going to start with my parents, my father. every act had issue, i think through all three acts in my life, racism played a strong role. but in the first act was the time when after moving 13 time, because my father was one of eight neurosurgeons of color in the united states and was not allowed to practice in white

hospitals and could not practice white patients. so every time he was stationed at a hospital and we had to work the va, then he was moved to another hospital. so i moved 13 times. now people will, you know, that's really hard on a young child. but when i think it it was an adventure, it built resilience in me. i got to a lot of people across all color boundaries like us. i was able to learn how to assimilate with everyone. so it was really an adventure but the one thing that started and i think by the time we located in maywood, illinois, my father decided suddenly to just leave us and would have to understand. and donna talked about earlier in her in her early discussion about how women back and this was back in the early sixties.

yes. because my father's status within the african-american community, we were pretty high up on the social ladder right. suddenly he leaves. that plummets. my mother see, it affects the women all the way down to the bottom. she has no credit cards. she didn't have a bank account. he not pay child support. and it was a time where our family just went into shock. have a younger brother now. what had happened is time slowly passed by. once he left, i had to get a job. i was suddenly thrown into adulthood where i had to take all of the family. and i was mopping floors at jcpenney. i tell you, if i lost everything tomorrow, i could go back to mopping floors. you so then anyway, came home, found my mother the floor with a nervous breakdown. and that was the beginning of how i had to start rethinking

rebuilding my life. but it was a pivotal moment where i realized that i never wanted to find myself in a situation that i found my mother in. now we talk about that as women, but life is funny because you end up going right back around and finding yourself in the same position. and so what lesson did you learn from your mother being on the floor and you having to her up? but i also want to because i read your book. i read it twice. but you you mention when you called 911i don't know, back the day was 0911. i know what i call back now. would you call someone an ambulance? all right, i had to call ambulance and i had no idea that the ambulance driver was going to me. i didn't have a penny. right. and they weren't going to take her unless i could pay them. and dad had left your mom? oh, he was had long gone. but your mom wasn't just a

homemaker. she was. indeed. she was. she was an account. yes, that's right. she was an accountant. she went back to work. but i also had to help supplement the income. but at that point, she could not work because of her mental state right. and it was just a case i had to call a friend of hers decision would pay the bill to, get my mother to the hospital and that's when i decided that i never, ever want to find myself that position again. and something just hardened in me and was never going to depend on a man whom i to chart my own course in life. so that was that was part of your first act finding your legs learning how to stand right. but how did you develop your wings? because pretty soon you found your passion or i guess you describe yourself as being a little awkward, not as awkward as your dad but you found your

passion. what an instrument. yes, i was a i picked up the violin at age nine for some from the moment i picked up that instrument, fell in love the way it felt, the way it sounds. and i just remember my father saying, why did you pick the most difficult instrument of all? but i was determined to becoming a good violin. i didn't know whether i could be a great violin was that i was really good. but you got it. you got in college. although you did not do so well. you s.a.t. scores. yeah, let me explain this. this is another layer in the book and this is all part of the racial divide that we have in our country. i was living in a neighborhood, there's still a lot of segregation where we couldn't live in the best of neighborhoods. but i was never the truth about s.a.t. nobody talked to me about

it. i didn't even know really what. an s.a.t. was. and so i was just to i said, i want to go college. they told me to report on a saturday morning someplace nice nearby. and i took this test. i didn't know what i was doing right. i came in with the lowest s.a.t. scores. you have ever seen in your life because i didn't know what i was doing and. it scared me. when i finally the reality hit that i wasn't going to be able to get in college. these sat scores. yes. so had happened. my orchestra director, starrett, she said, sheila, i've never seen anything like it, but we're going to make this work, get your violin. we're going to come and drive down to champaign, illinois. and you are going to perform for paul roland. mm. and when i did the audition for him, he says you're in, you're going to get full scholarship to the university of illinois and what got me in the college but it also allowed you to find your

own rhythm in your own voice. it did. because even though everything that we were going through and me having to really take the family and them under my wing, i found a safety net in music, classical music. i loved it. i would listen to it at night and believe it or not, i would go to work, go to school, go to work, get my homework done, get a few hours of sleep and get up at midnight and practice because i was deterred when i was going. i was out for the illinois all state orchestra and also for the chicago youth orchestra. but what happened with the illinois all state? because you are competing against every talented musician in the state and i won and got the first chair and i'll never forget it because this girl came up to me and she said the only reason you're in the first year because you're and she gave me the n-word.

so i mean these are things that i had to deal and deal with them with grace she never stepped stoop to their level right? that i just proved that i could do it. the violin absolutely. the violin your parents saw this remarkable gift and they did something. i thought that was quite extraordinary. yeah, they mortgage the house. the mortgage. the second mark randolph, they. yes, very fine violin. yeah. i mean, that just and you had this remarkable instrument you could play it and you know there was part in the book i forget what now when call you jelly hips that when i was a cheerleader. well i just wanna what a jelly hip is because you know is because he is ranting outside my neck a lot of a of padding there. oh jelly help y'all remember that this afternoon when all go out in the rain little jelly that violin. i got to transition you. you're in college and you meet

this guy. mm hmm. and he was really into i mean, i don't, you know, i don't want to say swept you off. if you want to prove. but he was into you. he followed you. he wanted to be in a little. this is another psychological thing. i was the daughter of a doctor. okay. all right. he was 1299 children. i think he wanted to have a girlfriend, you know they said, oh, you married up. i so these are the layers of conflicts that you deal with. okay. see, now see all this now because i had to go through a lot of therapy but it that i'm light skinned. oh i know what it's like back then. okay. so these are things if read the book, there's just layers, layers of issues that really are in the culture of our community

that men go after certain women for a certain reason. when i look back on it i don't think he ever loved me. i think it was just to be able to do that. okay. but. johnson yes. bob johnson. man to marry you. he proposed to marry you, although you said you have recollection of the proposal or. but you do have recollection of your wedding day. wedding day and you have recollection of your graduation because while you completed your courses, earned your degree, you did not attend graduation because he would not let me what i started see was beginning of a lot of abuse i ended up with a narcissist and this was one of the most dangerous of all personal politics. so it was that. it's really interesting because he went on to princeton for

graduate school. i stayed back in illinois. he did not ask me to marry him. then, but i started to date someone else and i remember him coming back. got so angry that he put his fist through a wall, scared me to death. so there were these red that just started popping up and my mother kept saying, sheila, do not do this. i tell mom i, love him. i think he loves me. that was coming out of being as a child. a child. well, this is why you these complicated and wrong decisions. all right. so these are the things and see, this is all the stuff i had to work out through therapy. mm hmm. so it's life went on and especially, you know, i'm on a full scholarship. he wanted me to follow him to princeton, and i said no, you don't say no to a narcissist that i said no. okay. he says, okay, well, then i'll call him. came back to work for project 500 at illinois and then he

decided, you are not going to go to your graduation i waited for you long enough. it broke my mother's heart. so we got married, followed him to princeton. i then got a job in princeton and also taught at princeton day school and all up and down route one and junior highs, which are musical talent, i understand. orchestra director. yep, yeah. the love of the arts. and i again had to keep a roof over our but here you now with bob johnson and not one year not 550 almost 330 years of your life. yes. you're you know, you are struggling to keep bob dreams alive the same time. and that's pressure. but it was your creativity and brilliance that helped with creation of black entertainment television that had never existed in america, that you had

to table when it was being drafted and developed. that's right. so you have to understand, betty was born during the birth of all cable and. it was a case where he was a lobbyist for the national cable television association, was taking a senior citizen up on the hill. and he, the senior citizen, needed government approval, money and, so forth and so on. he didn't get it through the proposal in the trash bob picked it up, brought it home. he says, i need you to read this. i'm i'm also now senior put black in there and i just said you know this is a perfect idea look at all the stations that are starting up cnn, mtv came about two years later, nickelodeon all of them, i said, but no one is really addressing the african american voice. and i said, this is an opportunity where, yes, there's ebony magazine, there's jet, but there's no one in the black media, television.

and i just that this would be a brilliant idea. we tweaked the proposal. he went to john malone in denver. john malone thought it was the greatest idea and immediately invested in company and continued to put money in the company until we sold it to viacom. john malone of new york right, is that you? no. denver. denver, go right more back. i'll have. yeah. so, betty, i see some heads but i got to to one more story. okay. we all hold those. hold that. all right. put a pencil in it. you. 30 years. how would you describe your relationship? i think that's the only way put it, because it's shaped you and somehow you learned what was the lesson and spending 30 years

with someone who may not have appreciated you, not only did he not appreciate me, he had no respect for me because whole time that we were building this company and i wanted to keep putting him first because in the african-american community, men are held back. and i really him to shine. i put all of his needs first. i was in the back really being the cheerleader there, and he would keep attacking me. he said, you just need to pipe down. you need to be my cheerleader, but i needed to help help shape the vision of what we needed to create. okay and i didn't want us to lose sight of our end goal. and so is, you know, we went on the air we were only on 2 hours a week. and remember, it was the worst program. and i don't remember petey greene. i was on one of those shows. okay, helpful. chainmail it was the worst thing i'd ever seen, but he was sitting up there and greens and

pork chops. i was on one of those, so terrible girl you might have helped me with my tv career. come on, i play in front center, but i'm kind of. it was the worst programing. and the reason we were only on for 2 hours a week. we couldn't get advertising. nobody, none of the advertisers believed in a black channel. we couldn't get proctor and gamble. we couldn't get anybody even the black hair care products to do advertising on there. no one would do it. and finally, mcdonald's stepped up to the plate. but the door that open all of a sudden was went in. we're going into two years later, right is when the video markets up and. i remember i was on the treadmill and watching michael jackson. paul mccartney. yeah. and it was the greatest story. i'm unbelievable storytelling through music.

yeah. and i said i would have never thought about this. it was just fabulous. and there was more and more videos that were coming out that we just loved that mtv would not play black program me at all. and this where our door opened and we were able to capture that market. so that was wonderful and that's when the advertisers started to up because we were getting more eyeballs on the channel. huh. so the other thing that happened about hate to say it's about eight or nine months later, the videos that were being aired were coming on the market but they were going downhill. the women were the way they were portraying women in the videos. it was it was close to pornography. and i just could not stand it anymore. and this went on for a while. i complained it and i tried show people within the network that if you turn the volume off, what does it look like? live pornography?

yeah. and i said, i don't like our young people watching this stuff and thinking that's the way they're going to behave and going out on the street, doing that's right. that's right. so what i did is, i created a show called teen summit. teen summit was a format show. we shot live and it went on noon every saturday. but i was able to interview 25 of the smartest kids in the whole dmv area who wanted to help me craft and collaborate and put this program together. what subject should we talk and it was just amazing. the kids were smart. paris and we put all of this together. and i mean, we talk about teen dating, we talk about checkerboard dating, we talked about teen pregnancy, we talked about everything in, the world. those were the main subjects, but we on saturdays, some of the most contrary subjects that kids

could not talk to their parents about it was about sex and i remember bringing some parents onto the show and i said, i want you to talk to your parents. tell them something they don't know, that you don't. and this one girl said, yeah well, i'm dating this guy and blah, blah, blah, blah and the woman just passed. she passed on the set. so but is just proof that we need really talk to the kids. this is something the kids really wanted to do. yeah. so it it was so successful that we were wrong for 11 years. so betty became a staple in our cable news diet. we loved it. we hated it because had, you know, it was cutting edge the videos as you mentioned but your second act was your moment in many ways to find your path because when it ended when i

said it your relationship it wasn't just your relationship with barb but the was going to be sold and that whole process and you know we didn't say this but i forgot to mention it that beautiful violin that your parents took out a mortgage for you sold it in order to create start better. yes, i did. i had to i had to. the rent on the office. so i sacrificed a lot to make things happen because i really believed in the vision and getting this company. i knew it could be successful if done right. okay. and there's just still a lot of things out there. i just regret that betty never got to me. you know, i think that we squandered a huge opportune entity to really and so you could have run that put news program to really talk about our issues that are going on in the

company. now, betty is, up for sale again. whoever buys and i hope that when that when it's to whoever that person is right that they have to look at it long and hard and see how it could be revived and really into a vision where it can really do the most good. that's good. that's so the third act, your divorce you no longer have a company but you have love lots of money love. it's a money. yes. you got got you're a billionaire. you're rich right. yeah, but for sheila johnson she'll crump johnson. that wasn't supposed to just sit in a bank and grow and grow and grow. you begin to spend it to do what? what your goal at that point what was your vision and how did you reassure. i wish you well. there's something that happened between. the sale, the team, me getting

that money. and i remember that money in bank. nevertheless and for women. so i called this bank. i'm not going to mention i think it's in the book. it is a bank in new york anyway. i called them and i said, i got all this money i need lessons on diversifying my money, investing it. i to make it grow. i had an appointment at that bank. mm. i remember pulling up, going to the, i guess was the eighth floor or something and. the men that i was supposed to be meeting with never showed up. they sent a woman in there. and i'll never forget this is a young girl. and she was spinning around in a pedicure. what can i do for you? i said, we're. i remember the names that are going to give their out, as it were. so, oh, they were in another meeting or i said, you know, i this up two weeks ago, you not taking me seriously. well i can try and make a call.

i said, no, that's okay yeah. i got up, left the room, i pulled every penny of the back room. i would not deal with this anymore. i mean, and that's way i was treated. so with that money and after a divorce, right. that was pretty tough. it was very public. humiliating. what i through it even got fired from my own company. that's what precipitated sale of b t because that was my company too. i said, no, it's going to be sold because i'm going to get my money out. thank. so then anyway, i decided i needed to build a new life and to do that and there were a lot of lessons i want you to understand with act one of my life and act two i learned a whole lot my life was starting within me. i was learned so many hard lessons too adverse and i didn't realize this was happening that i was getting strong and stronger and stronger.

so when i left my ex-husband and started my next life and things within the book because in anyway is layers and layers in there i had to get out of washington dc that is a tough city to live in with. what i was going through. yeah, i needed to get away and as my mother said, you need to sit still for a while. it's very hard, which i couldn't do. but anyway moved to middleburg, virginia, where my daughter was a professional show jumper and i knew the area well and it was a place where i knew i could just sit back and figure out my next step in life. when i moved to the town, there was something sad about it. as cute as it was, it was bankrupt. middleburg. middleburg. but that was it became she she place because the kennedys jackie kennedy came there to

ride and she would ride the hunt. she and little caroline and so then everyone started to move out there but they had the estates outside the town, the town half the was boarded up and it was it was just very sad. but anyway, it sent my kids to the hill school. i loved the arts. they had a great arts program. there was nothing there for the kids to perform andover performing arts center. there. the next thing i did, every time, i would drive through the town. there was gun shop there called the powderhorn and they had a confederate in it. i called my attorney, i said, i need to find a gun estate agent. i'm going to buy building. he goes, why is it because i can? so i did. you're a billionaire. took the confederate flag out is now a wonderful market. and then i got a call from a broker saying. pamela harriman has passed away is the last of the estate of the hammond property.

would you like to look at it? this is 340 acres. it borders the town goes further, ran up on hill and looked at it. and i knew immediately what i was going to do. and i was going to build a resort because i knew that could be the economic energy and anchor for the town, which did work well, now i thought it was a great idea. other people thought it was a great idea. so i had kind of a party up on the land with the visions. i had the plans done at architects that helped me design the grays through food. the next i woke up and went to dulles airport and on both sides of the road were signs that said don't bet in middleburg that was the beginning of ten year battle to get that resort up. i thought my going through the divorce bad this was the longest and the worst racial fight i have ever through in my life.

my life was threatened. my kids lives were threatened. i to get security. i still have security to this day. it was a nightmare when the fbi came in was interstate mail fraud. people were hopping my fence on my farm with threatening letters. i had to sit through unbelief, moveable hearings where i was berated by the town. there started to call it johnson burr. paul mellon said he's rolling over in his grave how dare you take over this place know. so this went on for and years and i could have given up, but i didn't. i didn't because. there were. it was just something within me that i had to fight because i knew that if i gave up nothing was going to happen. but in the end, i won by one vote and those hearings. yeah. now the town is richest historic town in the of virginia and it

is is and not only is it is thriving but you put d.c. to shame because all of the big art and cultural even tasting. yeah one use of popped up we got 11 right at our doorstep we a breweries we have restaurants it is unbelievable i started the middleburg film festival robert redford because i was sitting on the board of sundance and. redford was toying with the idea of the sundance preserve, what he was going to do with it. his son didn't know when wrote it. we want to take it over. so flew out and he said, you got to see what i want to do. so he came on the property with me and brought him up in a hummer, which he berated me about. i did i did sell that hummer that. and he looked down on the town and he said, you really should put a film festival here and stuck with me. i hadn't even put the shovel in the ground but the opened in

2013 and i had that film in october i opened it started with a friend of mine susan carter. our kids had gone to school and she and i and had done documentary film work together. and i said, susan, i need you on board to really help me put this film. she says, you are crazy. i said, nope, we can do it. i have two more questions because i want to open up in the last 10 minutes and i'll i'll give you both questions and you can maybe give us a one answer. you talked about your book. that painting for is very important. yes. and my question is a simple one. why in philanthropy is important in your life? what do you focus your resources, your dollars. okay, i have put a lot of investment in young people. i have sent kids school from mooresville. i just finished up a project david gergen four years ago

where i paid for put 50 kids through the kennedy school, harvard and paid for everything. and they're all from underserved communities and they are so successful and the lesson in that is you just don't write a check. you have got to get involved in their that's what you really do. they me mama j i'm still one of them. got married in my house three months ago, but they're still around are they are just doing great. i just really believe in trying to make a difference one of the projects. i just finish. if you all go down on the national mall, you will see brand new horse stables for the united states park police. this has been mission those poor horses through those places. it's just unbelievable. it's taken me four years to get this. i raised the $30 million and i got those park police. that's right.

and i said two questions and i have two young ladies who want to ask the question but i am a big fan of sports. oh, and i just have to say this before i open up door to others in the mike. i love sports. so do y and you part owner the watching of mystics too. yeah i nationals you know the wizards national let me tell you that was and you'll see it in the book that is an opportunity of lifetime that a woman never gets the opportunity to do an i'll talk fast because a time to watch but a portion had come to me and he said you know would you be interested in being the face of the washington mystics? and i said, what do you mean the face? he says, i want you to own the team. and i looked at the fine answers and i said, they don't make any money. and so anyway he says, but. and i said, no, you don't have to say anymore i knew what that was about. it was giving a woman an

opportunity to get into the sports ownership. that's right. i came up with another idea. i knew ted leonsis had bought the capitals and he had first. right. and to the wizards once a pass away. okay so. i then went to my attorney. i said, get ted on the phone. i said, i'll make you an offer you can't refuse him. i'm a woman and an african-american man i want to buy into all three teams. okay. yeah. and he said i think it could be a great idea. let me go to the other part and sure enough, so i'm vice chairman, monumental sports. so we're going through an issue now we're now he's going to move the team. it's going to be about five years from now. yeah, it wasn't the wizards and the caps. i said, you got to leave the mystics in the city. he wasn't those two virginia. well, that's the problem. but we'll what happens this is what we rich people problem but

a lot of us love the teams. all right. let's open it up for a few questions. stand up, please. you don't mind? yeah, ahead. thank you for being here on it. thank so much. have you considered the team back? she want to know if she'll consider buying. bet back. i've been approached about it by the banks. i am loving third act in life. i love the hospital l.a. business i'm having so much fun. the entertainment business is it's tough to make money and and it's very complicated and i was not happy in that second act of life. there's a lot of i love the film business, you know, some dabbling that i did the movie the butler lee daniels that part the movie business. i love television.

it's tough because television, i think, is now to find its own footing. it's in a trans issue and it's like playing roulette. and no, i'm not really. all right. i'm honest answer. yes. yes, sir. i feel i've had the pleasure of at the salamander and middleburg and also see and i just i'm overwhelmed with the incredible elegance and sense of style that you imparted on that. where did that come from as far being decorated artists and all he's been the shill resorts he love it he want to know her secret sauce and tell us about all of the resorts she'll yes i have a lot of resorts now. the salamander was the one in this block was the second one, which is part of the pga tour. it's a 900 acre golf resorts, four golf courses on there. then there's half moon in jamaica. there's charleston, the hotel ben in charleston.

i bought the dc property and we picked up the aspen institute. so i'm now in the throes of finishing up the renovation of all of the aspen institute. aspen meadows. so i'm part of the ideas festival. we've run all the, the whole hospitality part of that. and also getting involved with dan porterfield with ideas. so what we're doing, that's what's going now how did you how did you become developed an esthetic amazing sense i love the fine things in life you know i was in the violin toured all over the world and, stayed in some of the finest hotels, performed in the shot of. and that's where i developed the i, i love that european style and it's just with me and i knew that when built the resort in middleburg, i wanted it to have

the same face of the equestrian community. i wanted it to look like an estate that resort into this fifth or sixth year where we've won the. forbes five star. and next week going to pick up a third. forbes i can't talk about it. it was supposed to be embargoed, but i'm going to fly to to pick that award up. that would be great. next question. oh, right ma'am. yeah, i you know, that part of your third act was also meeting another man, and i'm. oh, yes. me. tell this real quick, because it's a fun while i was teaching i was teaching at sidwell friends at the time was only making 70 $200 a year. it wasn't to live on but what had happened. there was a theater company, the -- ensemble company, come in to washington. they were doing a show called

ceremonies dark old men, denise nichols had this part had was back to hollywood for another season with the tv show. i went down auditioned got the part it ran 98 performances there was a man a young man in the show with and we did 98 performances and we knew each other. there was no hankie panky, nothing like that. but what it happened to make very long story short, when went to get my divorce, i walked into the courtroom and i saw the judge and i said i think i know this guy. and so my attorney says, just shut up and let's get through this. and and so once the divorce hearing was over, i went up. i said, your honor, may i the bench? and he said, yes you may. i said, by any chance, do you remember i had finally figured out who he was and he in the

play with me on bill newman. and so i was president of the washington internation channel horse show at the time. and i invited him to the gala that we were having. and three weeks later he asked me out and got married three years. last question from the young lady to my right. you still have a question you find out how she'll show a mother toll well. your mother wanted to know if she had tasted milk. you did not. but that's in the book. she'll in the book but i. i was my mama asked me if i tasted milk. what i think john wrote down for her. yeah, we're broke down for the first. how did you get the job knowing about him? because, you know, at the you know, all the cable. i know. yeah. we flew out there, made an appointment oh yeah. and we had the idea because all

the cable was booming then and it was in a transition. we had proposals on who was willing listen to it. yes ma'am. oh, we've been a similar journey with the history foundation. i think they've been on a similar journey through the i have a dream foundation and really giving back here last class of dreamers bilinguals is good, but didn't just write the check for our vision yes when we're blessed we share one thing so we sleepovers we go basketball so you got involved. yeah and that's what keeps the kids around yeah whatever they. which the children that i put through school your children my children paige and rhett i'm

still working on that but they know very generous and they're watching me closely right now. i'm trying to get their careers started. my daughter had was working with a homeless shelter and so, you know, doing whatever she's. but anyway, we have less than 50 seconds and yes, by any chance, do you know you're always working? i'm your schedule is so do you still play the violin? i do. and i picked up the cello during covid. yeah. yeah. thank you. they wanted to know if she was still playing the violin and. and, sheila, you heard her response. yes. once again, sheila johnson has earned the rare pomp award here. yeah. and again, the book is sheila johnson through fire. we didn't even get into the meaning of salamander, but this

book is about love, loss and. of course, her amazing journey, her triumphs and her sacrifices. so please, it's a great