If Rehoboth Beach is looking for a goodwill ambassador, it doesn’t have to look far. Cheryl Blackman, all 4 feet, 4 inches of her, makes it her business to do good for the community she loves.
Although she has taken on many causes during her life, her recent passion is KINFolk, a program to help hospitalized and homebound children gain access to computers and the internet.
Over the past three years, she has raised an amazing $50,000 by selling raffle tickets. That total is enough to purchase 50 new computers.
From May to December, she heads out every day on her bike, roller skates, or rollerblades and sells tickets. “I start at 9 a.m. and go to 10 p.m., and would stay out later if I could,” she said.
When she turns on the charm and her smile, it’s hard to say no. “I love being with people. I’m a people person,” she said. “Everywhere I go, there are people who know me.”
And she is not shy.
Because she is so outgoing, nothing stands in her way. She has appeared in four movies, starred as a leprechaun at Trump Plaza, appeared as an elf at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, and starred in several commercials.
Cheryl has received several awards for her good deeds including the Community Service Award during the 2006 Martin Luther King Day ceremony. She was named a KINFolk Superstar and honored for raising money for the Rehoboth-Dewey Chamber of Commerce and the Sussex County Association of Realtors.
As a person who rarely says no, she volunteers at nursing homes, the Rehoboth Beach Bandstand, at Burton Village, or wherever else she is needed.
She was extremely touched by the events on Sept. 11, 2001, and to honor those who perished, she wears something red, white, and blue every day.
Cheryl is something of a beach legend for her zany holiday costumes and loves to pose for photographs when she gets dressed up.
She also finds time to work. She was a fixture on the Rehoboth Boardwalk as a roller-skating employee at the Beach Luncheon for 16 years until it closed in 2000. She now works at Grotto on the Boardwalk during the summer season.
Cheryl, who was born in 1963 in Dover, suffers from hypochondroplasia, a form of dwarfism. Her mother, Shirley Bennett, and three sisters, Barbara, Sharon and Valerie, are normal size. She attended the Benedictine School for exceptional children near Denton, Md. from the age of 11 to 20. It was around that time her family moved to Rehoboth Beach as full-time residents. Her father passed away, and she now lives in Rehoboth Beach with her mother and stepfather, Bob Bennett.
Most people know Cheryl for her other claim to fame – her stint as an actor. After becoming associated with the group, Little People of America, she befriended Sammy Ross, an actor who became her agent.
She has had parts in four films and been turned down in parts for at least two others because, believe it or not, she was too tall.
Her favorite film, and biggest part, was as a stunt double for Miss Piggy in the 1983 film “The Muppets Do Manhattan.” She competed with 100 other “little people” to get the part and still gets royalty checks from time to time. She and her mother were invited to the premiere of the movie in New York.
She also appeared as a circus clown in “Her Alibi” with Tom Selleck, was a stand-in for children in “Avalon,” and was an extra, with other members of her family, in “Violets are Blue.”
“We got to eat with Sissy Spacek and Kevin Kline,” she said. She auditioned for “Willow” and “12 Monkeys,” but was told she was “too tall” for the parts. “She is a big, little person,” her mother said.
It’s not that Cheryl is a perfect angel. Her mother recalls the time on a family vacation that people were sent into a panic at Luray Caverns in Virginia when the lights went out. “It was Cheryl who found the light switch behind the organ,” she said.
Then there was the time Hell’s Angels rode into Rehoboth Beach. Not to be intimidated by one of the most notorious gangs in history, she went up to the leader and rubbed his fat belly.
The bikers were so enamored with her, they allowed her to lead them out of Rehoboth Beach on her bicycle as they followed behind her, revving up their Harley motorcycles.
Or the time she went behind the scenes of a haunted house to frighten the people who were supposed to be scaring people.
“We should write a book,” her mother said. “She is probably one of the few to be kicked out of kindergarten, but she turned out pretty well.”
Contact Ron MacArthur at ronm@capegazette.com
