'The Pallet Lady' Retires After 14 Years at New Danville

WILLIS, TX -- Although Sherry Franklin has served multiple roles during her 14 years at New Danville, a nonprofit rural community for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, she is often known as The Pallet Lady. She will always be remembered as someone who cared deeply and compassionately for the Wranglers (New Danville clients) in everything she did.

With her last day being June 25, a large group of people gathered to wish her well and to remind her to come back often, which she assured the crowd she would do. Starting as a part-time driver and retiring as a direct support professional who oversaw the woodshop, she touched many lives along the way.
Among the people in attendance were members of the Charbonneau family who played a significant role in Sherry earning her most recent nickname. In 2019, Charbonneau Industries suggested an arrangement by which they would employ Wranglers to make pallets for them. There are now seven Wranglers with part-time jobs because of the Charbonneau’s generosity. They also had a building erected at New Danville to enable the pallet production program to expand.

“I never wanted another job,” Sherry said. “How could I? This has been the best job ever and I feel like I grew as a person here. Wranglers have a way of doing that to you.”