Today we’d like to introduce you to Sharon Strauss.
Sharon, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I am on the Board of Directors for Walk With Sally, an organization based in the South Bay that helps children who have been impacted by cancer.
My mother battled cancer for about 10 years, first breast cancer and then endometrial cancer. Unfortunately, she lost her battle almost 5 years ago, but in all bad, there comes good. Her illness led me to find Walk With Sally and I became the mentor to a little girl named Kiarra.
4.5 years later, I’m still Kiarra’s mentor – we see each other monthly and plan lots of fun activities together! Additionally, because I saw how much this program helped the kids involved, I decided that I wanted to take a larger role in helping it grow.
I’m now serving on the Board of Directors, with the hope that we will be able to grow this organization to be in ALL cities. There’s nothing like what we do anywhere else… and there are a lot of kids who need help!
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
One of the biggest challenges to becoming a mentor is helping the child open up. Kiarra was painfully quiet at the beginning of our friendship! I remember looking at my watch during one of our first outings and only 20 minutes had passed… and I thinking to myself, how in the world am I going to make it through the next 4 hours?!
I can happily say that we did make it through and almost 5 years later, our relationship grows every time we’re together. Because I’ve always been consistently there for her, she’s finally realized that I’m not going anywhere (something that I think is challenging because she lost her Dad at such a young age).
My advice is to be patient, consistent and just show up! That means the world to the kids!
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Walk With Sally – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
This answers everything about Walk With Sally: https://www.walkwithsally.org/about-us/our-mission-to-mentor-children/.
I’m proud that we are continuing to grow, year over year. I’m proud that the bigger we get, the more kids we can impact! Every time I hear a family speak about how we’ve helped their family, I know we’re doing the right things. There is no other organization that does what we do… and that’s why it’s so important to me that we grow to more cities.
What advice would you give to someone at the start of her career?
Find your passion – if you find something you love doing and you can put your all into it, you’re always going to be happy. Life isn’t always easy, so if you’re happy at least you’re doing better than most people!
Contact Info:
- Address: 840 Apollo Street, Ste 324,
El Segundo, CA 90245 - Website: https://www.walkwithsally.org/
- Phone: (310) 322-3900
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @sharonstrauss OR @walkwithsally
- Twitter: @IAmSharon or @walkwithsally
Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
