By Diane Walder
Northside News April/May 2015
If you shop at Copps, you’ve seen her. She’s the one out in the parking lot gathering up shopping carts like a herd of cattle. She’s out there bent over, using all her strength to push the herd into the store, and she does this regardless of how cold, hot, rainy, snowy, windy or icy the weather. And she does it cheerfully. Catch her eye and she’ll greet you like an old friend — “Hey, how you doing?” Ask her how she’s doing, and she replies, “I’m great!”
Her name is Sherry Scheel, and she is a remarkable woman. At an age when most people are retiring, Sherry is in her 11th year at Copps, where she’s done most everything there is to do there. She rides a bicycle to and from her job at Copps; and when she has finished a long day there, she bikes over to Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation, where she’s been cleaning at night for 15 years.
Sherry has known hard work since childhood. “I grew up on a farm in Arena. We had cows, pigs and ducks and we had had two big gardens. I drove the tractor for haying and helped with planting and harvesting. The hardest job I had was to lift hay bales and put them on the elevator. They were big and really heavy. I did outside work because I had hay fever and couldn’t go in the barn.”
Sherry attended Spring Green High School and, at age 18, moved to Madison to find work because there were no jobs in Arena. She has lived and worked in Madison ever since. She has four children and four grandchildren. Sherry doesn’t watch TV and likes to read. She is currently reading a biography of Charles Manson.
Ten years ago when Sherry was seeking better paying work for which she was clearly qualified, she was repeatedly turned down and given excuses why she wasn’t hired, but she knew it was because of her age. “Seems no one wants you when you’re over 55,” she said.
While Sherry loves her job, it’s hard work for anyone of any age. “In the winter the wheels of the shopping carts freeze up,” said Sherry. “They don’t move, so I can only bring in four at a time, and I have to push them since they don’t roll.” But, she adds, “The summertime is fun.”
Sherry’s coworkers give high praise to Sherry. “She is amazing,” said Mary Holmes. “I don’t know how she does it.” Sherry laughed and said, “I don’t know how I do it, either.” Mary is a Northside resident who has worked at Copps for 18 years. You’ll usually find her in the bakery, although she does a little of everything.
The store managers are equally effusive in their praise of Sherry. “She is an awesome worker, not just because of her work ethic, but because of her character. She is a priceless employee who would be very hard to replace. Copps would be a different place without her,” said Copps Manager Dan Kuball.