After Sha Tabb deleted all of his dating apps, the former NFL cheerleader’s inner circle decided to take matters into their own hands. In February, two of her best friends posted a profile on Wingman.com – but little did they know it would soon become a 48ft billboard in Times Square.
“I was floored. I was speechless. I didn’t know what to say,” Sha, a 42-year-old traffic reporter who lives in Fort Lauderdale, told PEOPLE. “I’m really excited about this adventure.”
Sha met her best friends, Jacqui Duran, 30, and Sheri Ralliford, 34, when they worked at the same radio station around 11 years ago. A lot has changed since then for Sha, who says she’s busy and focused on having fun with her friends when she comes to town, not chatting with men she doesn’t know. .
“My love life seems non-existent,” Sha admits. “For a while, I didn’t mind not dating. I was on a few apps, I was going out on dates, and then guys ghosted me. I was like, ‘Okay, c’mon. is “not working for me. I know it worked for a lot of other people, but it just doesn’t work for me. “So I pulled out of apps.”
She wouldn’t be gone for long. Jacqui, who now sells health insurance in Miami, learned about the Wingman app when she read the story of Beth Davis, a woman with cancer who created a dating profile for her daughter Molly. (Molly also ended up with her profile on a Times Square billboard.)
Jacqui broached the subject at her 30th birthday dinner, where Sha agreed to let Jacqui and Sheri take charge of her love life and run the apps on her behalf.
So in February, Jacqui and Sheri created a profile for their outgoing and contagiously fun friend — a former NFL cheerleader and model who has appeared in music videos like Cardi B’s “I Like It” and worked as a backup dancer for Pitbull.
“We always have a good time,” Jaqui says of their bond. “We laugh and dance all the time. Honestly, there hasn’t been a time when I’ve been with Sha and I’m not in the best mood ever.”
Do you have a sweet story the world needs to know? Send details to love@people.com for a chance to be featured in Real-Life Love, People.com’s series dedicated to sharing extraordinary connections and heartfelt gestures.
The profile caught the eye of app CEO Tina Wilson, who said Sha’s experience “shows you can be beautiful inside and out, and even a cheerleader. professional girl, and you’re still struggling to find the right partner”.
Wilson’s team had the 48-foot billboard installed on May 3, then extended through June 19.
“It’s the weirdest thing on this earth,” Sha says of enlarging his dating profile for everyone to see. “I’ve done modeling in the past so I’ve had my face on things, but normally I promote other things for people or other products. Now I promote myself.”
It’s an exciting milestone in a life that has had its fair share of ups and downs, including brain surgery to remove a twisted blood vessel when she was just 12. But the effervescent Sha – who was born in Chicago and moved to Florida as a baby – grew up cheering for the Miami Dolphins for four seasons.
Now she’s a TV and radio traffic reporter in Florida, where she lives with her 9-year-old, 6-pound mini-pinscher, Lola. She never married – an engagement in her early twenties didn’t work out – but she still plans to share her future with a partner.
“I want a husband. That would be really nice,” Sha said. “I wish I had that for myself.”
To that end, Sha’s friends decided not to rush the process of selecting the many candidates.
“I let the girls take care of that,” Sha said. “They are completely my wing women and matchmaker.”
“Emails are pouring in,” adds Sheri, who screens all potential suitors alongside Jacqui.
RELATED VIDEO: Okla. Couple get married on plane 7 miles over Arizona after missing connecting flight to Las Vegas
Among their questions for men: What is your size? (Sha is 5-foot-10 and likes to wear heels.) Are you married? Do you have children?
“I want it to be like a real single life without the cameras,” Sheri says. “I want to give him a lot of choices…I want the decision to be tough.”
Sha has yet to go on her first date from the billboard, but her friends are hoping to be at the bar when it all happens.
“We’ll be around, just keeping an eye on things,” says Jacqui.
Stay tuned, because after her first date, Sha and her friends plan to share the details with PEOPLE’s Real-Life Love. In the meantime, Sha has ideas to offer her potential suitors.
“I want my other half, I want my best friend,” she says. “I want someone who has integrity, someone who wants to travel with me, who wants to have adventures with me and make decisions with me, to be my cheerleader. I’ve encouraged so many other people , I need my cheerleader now.”
