Sherri Shepherd. A Panic Attack. And A New Chapter.

I MISCALCULATED.

Haaaaaaappy Friday.

I am writing to you from New York City today. Not Atlanta.

Last Wednesday, I told you we would reveal the last scholar in The Finish Line & The Front Door series. I had it all planned out.

But then I got on a plane.

I needed to be in the studio for the last taping of the Sherri Show. You might know Sherri as an Emmy Award winner, a former co-host of The View, a New York Times bestselling author, and one of the most recognized faces in entertainment. Tyler Perry recently cast her in Straw, and she killed it. She is one of the funniest standup comics working today.

And I get to call her "friend." A 25-year friend to be exact. And my girl is closing a chapter...her show is ending.

I needed to be in this studio. Front row. The same way she has been front row for me more times than I can count.

Some things you do not miss. You just show up.

​There is more about all of this later in the newsletter. Keep reading.

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Two Things.

I'll have to write the last Finish Line & Front Door scholar next week.

But today, I need to talk to you as a sister friend, not as the nonprofit founder of Move-In Day Mafia, which, by the way, is the family that shows up for HBCU students who have aged out of foster care, are unhoused, or are navigating college under severe financial hardship. We don't just move them in. We stay. Four years. Monthly care packages. Because getting in is one thing. Staying is where everything gets tested.

We are family. Mafia Miracle Makers, as I like to call it.

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Now. Let's Celebrate.

I have to shout about two of our scholars one more time.

PRAIRIE VIEW, TEXAS.

You remember L.I.?

And remember a few weeks ago, several of you chipped in $1,200 so she could buy the materials she needed to run for SGA President at Prairie View A&M.

Well.

L.I. has been elected the 45th Student Government Association President of Prairie View A&M University for the 2026–2027 academic year.

OMG OMG OMG SHE DID IT.

And not only that. She is only the 5th woman ever to hold that title in the history of that institution.

She entered foster care at 15. Her original plan wasn't college. It was a warehouse job. Get to work. Survive.

She runs the Hill now.

Congratulations, Madam President. We see you.

And then there's W.N.

Our Delaware State scholar who landed a Disney internship. Yeah. That Disney.

Some of you moved fast when we asked about airline miles and hotel points to help her get there. Thank you. We got her flight covered, but now we are working on the hotel. She needs a hotel for a couple of days before her official housing check-in.

May 16th is coming fast, so if you have hotel reward points, please email us at [email protected]. If you want to donate...

→ Chip in for W.N.'s Disney trip

​W.N. worked too hard to miss this over a few-night stay in a hotel.

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The Morning My Phone Blew Up

Last week, my phone started going off.

Instagram notifications. Text messages. Back to back to back.

I was first terrified, thinking those nude photos of me dancing at Magic City to make money for Move-In Day Mafia had been leaked.😜

It was not that.

What it WAS... was Sherri.

Apparently, on that day's show, she had shared a story about one of our conversations in her opening monologue. And it had resonated with her audience in a way that had comments blowing up and strangers sending me the clip.

​See...what had happened was...

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The Call.

Sherri called me early one morning.

I am not a morning person at all. I had no business being awake at that hour. But for some reason, that morning, I was up.

I answered and immediately heard her hyperventilating.

My heart dropped.

The only thing running through my mind was her son, Jeffrey.

I started talking her down. Slow. Calm. Getting her to breathe.

It took a few minutes before I could actually understand what she was saying.

And when I finally did?

It wasn't Jeffrey.

For the first time in her entire career, Sherri Shepherd, the woman who has performed standup in front of thousands, co-hosted national television for years, and acted in major films, was completely freaking out about...

An audition. A Broadway musical audition.

First time ever.

She was so nervous that she said she needed to sing. And if you know Sherri, her singing capabilities begin and end at karaoke. She told me how tired she was from the long hours she'd been putting in. How she'd practiced so much that her voice was gone and now her voice sounds like "fried chicken." Yeah, that's exactly what she said. I don't know what fried chicken sounds like at all. Do you?

​Having to think quickly before she completely lost it, I simply told her...well...how 'bout I just let HER tell you.

What I did not expect was what happened after.

At the taping and again at the wrap party, once they realized I was there, members of Sherri's staff told me the same advice had helped them, too.

People who had been in that studio every day. People who had watched Sherri build something for years and were now feeling the weight of it ending.

They needed to run God's receipts, too.

​Maybe you do as well.

Every month when our scholars submit their care package requests, they have to finish a sentence.

They choose one:
“I’m grateful that…”
“I’m excited that…”
“I’m looking forward to…”

So we like to share some with you:

Well Mafia Miracle Maker, that's a wrap for this week. I'll see you next week for the last Finish Line Scholar. I will not miscalculate this time.

Until then, don't forget to donate to W.N.'s travel expenses or email [email protected]

Don't have the budget right now? You can always smack the "share" button. That helps too.
Hug yourself for me!

TeeJ "The Godfather" Move-In Day Mafia