April 2018 Newsletter
Over the last few weeks Walk With Sally has been up to a lot, here’s a rundown of the latest activities and events.
If you’re interested in joining our tribe of volunteers – click here!
Volunteering 101
“The essence of life is to serve others and do good.” – Aristotle
April is National Volunteer Month and here at Walk With Sally we would not be able to accomplish nearly as much as we do each month, without our incredible volunteers. From our dedicated mentors, to our special event committees and office volunteers, there’s a space for anyone who wants to give back. If you’ve considered volunteering, take a peek at our recent blog post detailing all the ways you can get started with us. We want you to be a part of our tribe!
Bonus Activities – Another Community Event for the Friendships
While you may have heard about our quarterly Walk With Sally produced Friendship Activities, we offer another mini-program of “Bonus Activities” for our friendships to participate in as well. Bonus Activities open up even more opportunities and access for the kids in our program to experience new things. These can include anything from tickets to a Lakers game to a musical performance like Seussical. Typically these events are not produced by Walk With Sally, however in our recent partnership with California Pizza Kitchen, they have helped elevate even our Bonus Activities. Our most recent collaboration was Pizza & Paint this past weekend, where everyone got together to celebrate Earth Day by recycling things they found around the house and painting on pizza boxes.
The Results Are In!
Walk With Sally’s 11th Annual Friendship Bowl brought together all kinds of fundraisers to support the kids! This year’s event featured more than 30 teams, 100+ fundraisiers ranging from mentors to brand new friends, and even Sparky the L.A. Sparks mascot showed up to cheer everyone on! Together the teams of fundraisers were able to raise over $120,000 which will help support 24 new friendships throughout their first year.
Some incredible achievers include Team Bender Squad who raised over $22,000 and teams Gutter Ballers, Depeche Bowl, Spare Necessities and Rappers Delight who all raised over $5,000 as well! Our outstanding individuals include Suzanne Sharer, Sharon Strauss (pictured above with Sparky!), Tina Patel and Michael Harrington who were all able to individually raise over $5,000 to support a friendship through its first year!
Thank you to everyone who participated, collectively you made a HUGE impact!!
Heart to Home
Walk With Sally’s first Heart to Home gathering of the year brought together 14 participants for a day of vision board creation. The purpose of our Heart to Home program is to give our mentors and mentees a creative opportunity to connect and heal through art. Led by artist Drica Lobo, each session features a new project and chance for our friendships to deepen their relationship. Drica had this to say about why she is so dedicated to the success of this program:
“It has been an incredible life experience being able to use art as a healing method. Giving hope to these kids and helping them understand that creation is a reflection on experiences and a transformation of thoughts and feelings into beautiful things.”
For more on how our Heart to Home program helps participants heal through art, check out this recent blog post.
FTK: For The Kids Social Club
The Stats
Volunteer Hours: 155 so far this year!
The FTK Social Club aims to inspire and connect young professionals and philanthropists throughout Los Angeles to help support the mission of Walk With Sally. FTK has volunteered at a variety of outreach events, special events and mentor program activities this year, leaving a big impact wherever they go. On top of all this, FTK hosts social networking events every other month to bring together like-minded awesome humans like you! Join in on the fun at the next event on April 26th!
Junior Mentors – Leaving Their Mark
Current Active Junior Mentors: 13
Volunteer Hours: 87.5 so far this year!
Upcoming Events
Time to get out of the house! We’ve partnered with some awesome events that will be benefitting Walk With Sally. If you live in the L.A. area we hope to see you there!
