Special honor for beloved Rehoboth Beach woman

The Rehoboth Beach community is showing their support for a local woman who has been battling breast cancer for the past 6 years.

But Cheryl Blackman isn’t just any local woman, the way community members describe her. They consider her kind of a local celebrity.

A fixture on the Rehoboth Beach restaurant scene, Cheryl started working at George’s Luncheon about 20 years ago. Her family tells 47 ABC she became popular to the crowds who visited the beach town because of the fact that she served customers while scooting around on roller skates.

After that she worked for Grotto’s Pizza on Rehoboth Avenue. She had to leave that job when she got sick. Customers and friends say part of the charm of the Rehoboth Beach restaurant scene was Cheryl; her fun costumes and big smile. But that is not all she gives freely.

Cheryl is a philanthropist. Aside from working at the restaurants, Cheryl helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for charity. Her sister Sharon Sherwood tells 47 ABC Cheryl helped sell $178,000 in tickets for Kinfolk and $22,000 for other charities like the Chamber of Commerce

Sharon says just recently Cheryl’s doctors recently determined there wasn’t anything else they could do to treat the cancer.

When the community heard this, they decided to throw her a parade. Wednesday night at 7pm the folks at Sign A Rama will drive Cheryl around Rehoboth Beach while folks in the community will stand along the roadways cheering holding up signs of support.

We’re told she has had such an affect on people in that community, that they really wanted to do something special for her.
Sharon Sherwood was in tears talking about all the local support for her sister, and say she is so proud of Cheryl.