Friend. Mentor. Auntie. Family member. Supporter. Loving coworker. Security Specialist.
Many people described Sheletha Anderson as bright and with a lovely, comforting smile. For some students at Creek, security specialists serve to protect the school, check visitors in, direct traffic, make deliveries, and drive students around on golf carts. But to many, Anderson was so much more.
“She was actually made of sugar and butterflies and all of these good things,” Security Specialist Joy Garcia said.
Through her 23-year tenure, Anderson saw generations of students in and out of Creek, and both students and faculty alike regarded her as a staple of the school’s day-to-day life. She formed close relationships with both staff and students, and she went above and beyond her duties at Creek.
But on Dec. 31, many people were left heartbroken by her shocking passing, which according to Principal Ryan Silva was due to a diabetes-related health issue.
Now, as faculty members and students reflect on her life and work at Creek, they’re recognizing the parts of her personality that they’ll miss. “I’m going to miss her smile, she always had the biggest smile,” Security Specialist April Garcia said.
Security Specialist Joe Rosales, who graduated from Creek in 2004, and then returned to the school later as a security specialist, interacted with Anderson while he was growing up and as a coworker. For him, the experience solidified his perspective of Anderson as someone who cared about her job deeply and wanted to bring joy to others.
“She found the best part of every worst day and always made you smile at the end of it,” Rosales said. “Even if you were having a tough [day,] she would always find a way to bring you back.”
Rosales was very close with Anderson – he loved their interactions and both knew each other’s family inside and out. Their closeness allowed their bond to be even stronger, and they maintained close friendships even out of work. “Everything with her just felt like such an honest flow that it was just unremarkable,” he said.
Security specialists like Rosales often remember shared moments with Anderson, those where they’re laughing together and doing their morning building checks, or talking about their lives and getting to know each other.
One of the security specialists’ main jobs is to begin each day at Creek by making sure everything is prepared for the students’ arrival, and Rosales said that Anderson “set the tone for the day.”
In the mornings, Anderson often sat with her coffee or visited people when she had a chance. Many members of Creek noticed that she cared deeply about the community and provided companionship to everyone who met her.
Anderson’s impact stretched beyond the security team as well. Administrators, like Activities Director Kelly Devitt-Prevost, noticed how she worked with care, and how she fostered relationships with students.
“I loved talking with her and sharing amazing stories about what kids were doing and just catching up on our lives,” Devitt-Prevost said.
As part of her effort to connect with the school, Anderson would make it a part of her everyday routine to stop in and say hello to different faculty members. Often, she would walk all around the campus and stop to talk and hear about everyone’s day.
“It was crazy the [amount of] faculty and staff she had relationships with,” Assistant Principal Kevin Uhlig said. “She would just stop by their office and say hello every day at a certain time.”
Anderson impacted extra-curriculars as well; she was one of the original founders of Creek’s step team. She built the team and while she may not still be here, she was able to mentor students and have an impact on their performances.
“She was the perfect person to do it because she could mentor the kids who wanted to do it, make sure that they had supervision, but also just mentorship too,” Silva said.
Anderson was not only a coworker, but she was also like a family member to many people she worked with. For specialists like Rosales and Joy Garcia, their bond often felt more like that of a sibling. April Garcia named Anderson as the godmother to her child, and described that their bond felt a lot like Anderson was an ‘auntie’ to her.
Like her bond with April and Joy Garcia, Anderson was also friends with Silva’s mother and stepdad. She’d often visit and would check up on them, building a different kind of connection between coworker and family member.
“Whether it was connecting with students or staff or parents, she had this ability to make people feel like they were seen and heard and valued, and not everybody’s able to do that,” Silva said.
In order to preserve her memory around campus, security specialist have hung up ‘In Memory Of’ posters in kiosks around the school. “She’s a pillar here for a lot of people who have already come, people who are currently here now, and people who hopefully are going to come in the future,” Joy Garcia said.
Anderson’s honesty was also very admirable, according to faculty members. She was a truthful person who knew the difference between right and wrong, and her honesty was an extremely important asset.
“She was not afraid to say, ‘dude, what are you doing?’ And she’d call you out,” Faculty Assistant Lori Ferguson said. “And I miss that because there are a lot of people here that would listen to her.”
No matter what student it was, Anderson made connections. “There was no hierarchy of who was popular, who was not popular, what group was cool, what group wasn’t cool,” Rosales said. “She just always made every single kid at [events] feel like they were there for a reason.”
After her passing, many remember Anderson as someone who truly embodied the Creek spirit. “She worked hard, she cared about everyone here, faculty, staff, students alike,” Uhlig said. “She was really a part of our community. She was a true Cherry Creek Bruin.”
