When it comes to a story, Jimmica Collins is going to bring it to life. “I got married to a coworker in a toilet paper dress at the end of one week,” she said while recalling a story about her two summers as a camp counselor at Rock Eagle 4-H Center. “Those girls behaved so well that week, I promised them I would make it happen.” Her fictional nuptials were the subject of many letters received from campers in the months after that summer.

Today, she brings life to Sesame Street’s “Grandma Nell,” an endearing character based on Jimmica’s own beloved Auntie Maebel. She is among the first Black women to work as puppeteers for Sesame Street and values being a representative voice for kids to see someone who looks and speaks in similar ways to them.

An impactful career in theatre, puppetry, and story telling has been centered on a mantra that Jimmica adopted from her leaders during those weeks of 4-H summer camp. “It was always ‘LTK, LTK,’ which is short for ‘Love Those Kids’,” she said. Jimmica received that love from her 4-H agents in Oglethorpe County. She received it in the UGA Upward Bound program that took her on a lifechanging tour of New York University. “I majored in theatre and minored in child and adolescent mental health studies at NYU, and I flew home in the summer to work at Rock Eagle,” Jimmica said. “I knew I wanted my future job to combine ‘LTK’ with loving the theatre stage.”

Grandma Nell’s character was born after eight months of training with the veteran puppeteers who perform Big Bird and Mr. Snuffaluffagus. “I had a wonderful tenure with the Atlanta Center for Puppetry Arts, and my time there inspired me to audition for Sesame Street in 2020,” Jimmica noted. After learning to talk to puppets and then learning to be a puppeteer in Atlanta, she was chosen for Sesame Street’s virtual training workshops. Her creativity and unique life experience later resulted in Grandma Nell being chosen as a regular member of the Sesame Street family.

“Grandma Nell was definitely a 4-H’er,” Jimmica said with delight. The warm and loving Muppet is the head of the community garden and offers friendly advice to her friends and neighbors. Jimmica weaves her experience as a 4-H’er into her story telling. Competing in Project Achievement played a pivotal role in her success as a student and a professional. She credits her ability to work hard, accept failure, and press on to those contests at Rock Eagle 4-H Center. “Getting told ‘no’ is a big part of acting,” she noted. “If I lost a 4-H contest, Lynn Patton and Susan Goldman would load us up and take us to Zaxby’s and everything felt alright. It was a great way to learn.” Cotton Boll and Consumer Judging was another one of her favorite activities, and she remembers going to retail stores to check out materials and pricing of clothing classes to judge. “I always use my stint as a Poultry Judging contestant as a fun fact in ‘two truths and a lie’ games,” she laughed.

In addition to playing Grandma Nell, Jimmica is a puppeteer on the PBS Kids program “Donkey Hodie,” a spinoff of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. She plays Rockstar Penguin and Frannie Fox, traveling to Chicago each month to film. Jimmica recently visited Rock Eagle 4-H Center for the first time in a decade. She took a picture in front of the cabin where she and her mother both stayed as campers and took in a full-circle moment. As a storyteller and a difference maker, Jimmica is honored to pay forward the lessons she learned as a Georgia 4-H’er to youth across America.

Article and Photo by Josie Smith