Gifts Pour In In Memory Of Young Officer

Leslianne Shedd’s diplomatic career allowed her to travel the world and serve others. Five months after she died in a plane crash, others across the globe are still remembering her.

The Leslianne Shedd Endowment Fund at the University of Washington - Shedd graduated from the UW’s Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies - has already grown to $39,000. Donations have come in from such places as Damascus, Syria; Bogota, Colombia; Lima, Peru; Paris; and Addis Abada, Ethiopa.

“This is truly a remarkable outpouring of love,” said Tracey Hinkle, associate director of development for the UW College of Arts and Sciences.

“It’s astounding to see the number of gifts which have come in.”

The endowment goal is $50,000, to be invested so the interest will provide years of scholarships to UW students.

In the past, Hinkle said, it hasn’t been unusual for a family to set up an endowment goal of $10,000 and fall short, even after many years of collections.

“The fact that this one has reached this level in five months is very unusual, and I think it’s really a testimony to how Leslianne was loved and the impact that she made in her world and with her friends and family as well.”

Shedd, 28, was among 125 people killed when a hijacked Ethiopian Airlines jetliner crashed Nov. 23 near the Comoros Islands. She was en route to Nairobi, Kenya, to visit relatives for Thanksgiving.

Shedd was a U.S. Foreign Service commercial officer in Addis Abada. She was greatly taken with the people, culture and environmental richness of Africa.

She hoped one day to get a health-care degree so she could go back to Africa to help the underserved.

That she touched so many lives is evident in the mail and donations.

UW officials are working with Leslianne’s parents, Bob and Mickey Shedd of Gig Harbor, on details for the scholarship program, which may serve health-care as well as foreign-service students.

The Shedds, too, are overwhelmed by the endowment donations as well as the cards, letters and support they’ve received.

“She touched a lot of lives,” Mickey Shedd said. “But what’s really more amazing to us is people who write letters and send money and don’t know us or didn’t know her but just read about her or met her in a casual acquaintance.”