By Libby Slate

Voiceover artist Dina Sherman of Calabasas remembers the day she accompanied her mother and grandmother to the doctor's office .

The doctor put an X-ray of her grandmother's brain up on the lighted wall box and said, "You see the gray matter? That's the dead part."

The doctor asked her grandmother questions: What year was it? Where were they? The elderly woman couldn't answer correctly; Alzheimer's disease had begun its inexorable erosion.

"I saw the reality of it hitting my mother," Sherman relates. "It was devastating."

Her maternal grandmother died of Alzheimer's disease nine years ago, a week after Sherman's first child, daughter Sabrina, was born. Two months later, her paternal grandmother also died from this horrible disease.

Still deeply affected by her loved ones' illness and its effects, Sherman, whose credits include the animated series "Biker Mice from Mars," "Digimon," "Superman," "Batman" and "Duckman," numerous commercials and live-action looping, decided this summer to take action.

For the next 12 months, she will donate 50 percent of her net earnings to the California Southland chapter of the Alzheimer's Association.

"I'm determined to make a difference," says Sherman, whose mother helps place Alzheimer's patients into board-and-care cottages in Orange County. "My goal is to bring awareness and money to the cause. Alzheimer's is the sixth leading cause of death in this country. We're fighting for funds from the government."

She had been accustomed to doing volunteer work, such as reading to children who are disabled, but had had to curtail her activity after the birth of her son Ryan, now four, to focus her time on two young children and a busy career.

"I was getting frustrated," she says. "I said to my husband, 'I want to give back.'" It was her husband, Steve, an engineer, who suggested donating earnings to a charity.

"It didn't take long to come up with the idea of supporting the Alzheimer's Association." Sherman said.

The Alzheimer's Association was surprised and, of course, thrilled. And Sherman's agent, himself an ardent philanthropist, was so moved that he pledged to donate half of his commissions from Sherman's voice work to the cause.

Sherman will be sending an e-mail blast about her own pledge to animation houses and producers. At this year's animation peer group Emmy Awards judging, she handed out fliers about her fundraising efforts. There, she relates, "People said, 'Please e-mail me, so I can disseminate this to my e-mail list.'"

In addition to donating half of her earnings, Sherman recently particpiatedin the Alzheimer's Association Memory Walk, held in downtown Los Angeles near California Plaza.

She has exceeded her fundraising goals thanks to the donations of family, friends and colleagues. Some of her supporters, dubbed the Sherman Tanks, also walked in the event.

The Alzheimer's Association Memory Walk® is the nation's largest event to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimer care, support and research - and it calls on volunteers of all ages to become champions in the fight against this fatal disease.

Since 1989, Memory Walk has raised more than $230 million for our cause.

"My slogan is, 'I've decided to put my money where my mouth is,'" says the actress, who can be reached through her Web site, www.dinasherman.com. "I'm so humbled by all the support and generosity."

To learn more about the Memory Walk and the Alzheimer's Association, you can visit www.alz.org.