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going to school. My only ‘job’ then was selling Tupperware to pay the rent and buy groceries.”

In 1987, Sherrie passed her bench test and was lucky enough to be taken under the wing of Alex Berzl, the owner of Alexander’s Goldworks. Still, Sherrie, who later graduated from AJI, worked with Alex for 10 years, really getting to know the jewelry business inside and out. After she left Alex, she started doing trade shows and picked up a couple of clients. “I had one showcase and made a lot of jewelry,” Sherrie said. “We took a six-month lease on a store in the Lang Shopping Center in Aloha. The rent was cheap at first but then took a big jump after six months, so I took a part-time job at All That Glitters. They transferred me to the Tigard store on Pacific Highway, and we liked the area and opened a store on the east side of Main Street down at the south end.

“We called the store Main Street Gifts and Collectibles, with my section called Sherrie’s-Specialties. My clientele grew, and a friend suggested that I should go out on my own.”

Still working at All That Glitters too, Sherries walked up Main Street one day to get an iced tea, where she saw a “For Rent” sign going up on a store across the street. They made a deal. No deposit was required because the tiny store had no floor and no walls, according to Sherrie.

“We worked on it for more than a month while I kept working at the teddy bear store,” said Sherrie, who opened Sherrie’s Jewelry Box in the new location. “I was there 10 years, and he never raised the rent on me.”

After a few years, Sherrie’s oldest son Ron, who had worked for Fred Meyer Jewelers for five or six years, came to work in the store, “and he kept saying, ‘We need more space,’” she said. The local mail carrier told her about a larger store for rent several blocks north on Main Street.

“It had been a frame store,” Sherrie said. “I don’t think there was a foot of wall that didn’t have holes in it. It actually used to be two separate businesses. Customers will come in and say, ‘This used to be an optometrist’s office’ or whatever.” Shortly before Sherrie’s Jewelry Box moved into the much larger space with big windows and a vaulted ceiling, she mar-ried her husband David, and both the mar-riage and the lease are nearing their five-year anniversaries.

Her son Jon started working for her at age 16. “He’s been with me for 10 years now.”

The store, open Tuesday through Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. and later by appointment, is located at 12425 S.W. Main St. in Tigard. For more infor-mation, call 503-598-0144 or visit sher-riesjewelrybox.com.

ymboree — bright colors, bright smiles and lots of fun for babies, children and parents. But quality time, fun and exercise are just the obvious benefits of Gymboree partic-ipation. Gymboree provides families with many more intangi-ble benefits as well.

Mark and Leslie Hanscom celebrated 20 years as a Gymboree franchise owners 2010. They operate Gymboree centers in Cedar Hills and on Upper Boones Ferry Road just west of Bridgeport Village in Durham. Their days are filled with teaching classes in play, music and art for children newborn through age five.

This small business has a very large and positive impact on the community, particularly among families with young chil-dren.

Besides physical fitness and fun, Gymboree provides a sup-port network for the campers and their families. The typical clients are parents raising their first child. Generally they start at Gymboree when the babies are 4 to 6 months old.

“Their lives have been turned upside down,” Leslie said. “The moms are out of their norm. Often they’ve quit their job, so their support system is gone, their community is gone and they now have a job with little interaction outside the house. Gymboree classes give people an opportunity to get to know others in their same predicament, with kids exactly the same age, (in) exactly the same situation.”

Gymboree classes include a time for parent education and sharing of age-appropriate childhood physical and brain devel-opment information. Friendships naturally form between par-ents and children in these groups, and its more the norm for the Hanscoms to see these relationships strengthen as the children grow up.

“We have employees who started as Gymboree campers when they were little,” Mark said. In fact, many of their 26 employees are parents of past Gymboree attendees.

Another way the Hanscoms support the community is

through presentations to Mothers of Preschoolers groups. On a regular basis, Leslie makes presentations at all the area hospi-tals, educating parents on child development and advocating the needs of preschoolers.

Gymboree classes are a big draw at benefit auctions, and the Hanscoms receive a minimum of three requests a week for donations to various charitable causes. “We give to every one of them,” Leslie said.

Their generousity and value system affects their business in other ways, too.

“If money is an issue and a family can no longer afford classes, we arrange for scholarships,”said Leslie. “I ask, ‘What can they do?’”

They have seen the number of clients in need rise over the past two years. They recognize that friends and the support of the Gymboree community are more important than ever during times of distress, financial or otherwise.

Gymboree has taken on global concerns, too, which fit with the Hanscoms’ commitment to World Vision through their church, Lake Grove Presbyterian. Gymboree has provided serv-ices through the Children’s Relief Nursery in Senegal for the past 10 years.

But, is it all fun and games?

“It is delightful!” Leslie said. “Relationships with parents, children, where your job is loving on children or telling parents they are doing a great job — that’s rewarding.

“Seeing families week after week, you really get to know the campers. You are supporting moms. We are forming long-term relationships. We are dealing with the whole kid — this isn’t about packing a week with activity or pushing kids to over-achieve — this is about forming a community.”