{"id":327137,"date":"2025-10-23T18:47:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T18:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/327137\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T18:47:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T18:47:12","slug":"big-brothers-big-sisters-of-l-a-celebrates-70-years-of-mentorship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/327137\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Brothers Big Sisters of L.A. Celebrates 70 Years of Mentorship"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tBig Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Los Angeles turned 70 in star-studded fashion on Wednesday, in a night honoring 20th Television president Karey Burke<\/a>, SMAC Entertainment co-founder and CEO Constance Schwartz-Morini and Macro\u2019s Charles D. King<\/a> and Stacey Walker King. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe Big Night Out Gala, held at the Beverly Hilton, celebrated 70 years of youth mentoring by one of the largest affiliates of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. Sherry Lansing<\/a>, who has been involved with the program for 40 of those years, kicked off the evening, noting how she\u2019s seen that \u201cthe Bigs and the Littles are connected for life. The Big Sister is there when the Little Sister graduates college, when she gets her first promotion; these relationships do not stop when the girl graduates high school. They go on for the rest of their lives.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tLansing also spoke about establishing The Hollywood Reporter Women in Entertainment Mentorship Program<\/a>, which pairs young women from under-resourced high schools across L.A. with powerful female executives in entertainment. \u201cThis is a world that they never have ever been exposed to and a lot of them have had very, very prominent careers in entertainment after they go through this program,\u201d she said of the mentees. \u201cSo if you want to pitch a script or an idea, you may be meeting one of our Little Sisters because I\u2019ve seen them go up through the ranks, and it makes me very, very proud.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tKerry Washington<\/a> then took the stage to present the Sherry Lansing Award to Burke, celebrating the exec\u2019s work as a mentor to her Little Sister Kenya McCoy. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen I spoke to both Kenya and Karey, the thing that struck me the most, the thing that truly broke my heart open and made me understand the importance of giving this award to Karey Burke tonight was the way that they both talked about the emotional risks of being a Big Sister and a Little Sister,\u201d Washington told the room. \u201cWhat these women have given each other is not just an occasional phone call or an annual lunch. They have given each other their hearts. They have become, over time, family. They have earned the title of sisters.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tIn accepting her award, Burke recalled how before she was matched with McCoy, \u201cI loved attending this annual Hollywood Reporter Women in Entertainment breakfast<\/a>. I saw Big Brothers and Big Sisters mentees be honored every year and when I finally joined the program myself, I waited like a kid on Christmas morning to find out who is my match, who is my match, what\u2019s she going to be like? And then I got Kenya\u2019s personal essay, and wow, her personality leapt off the page. I could tell right away that I would be learning just as much from her as she might from me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen the two met for the first time, they bonded over American Horror Story and \u201cher smile lit up the whole office, and let\u2019s be honest, that is not easy to do on a rainy Tuesday afternoon these days in the television business,\u201d Burke joked. \u201cShe came right into my heart, and that smile has continued to light up every room we\u2019ve been in together since.\u201d McCoy went on to get a full-ride scholarship to Chapman University at THR\u2018s Women in Entertainment<\/a> event, as Burke added, \u201cI have learned so much more from her, this powerful, brave young woman, than she\u2019ll ever know.\u201d <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tStacey Walker King and Charles D. King <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJC Olivera\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\n\tLater in the night, David Oyelowo<\/a>\u00a0presented the Walt Disney Philanthropists of the Year Award to King\u00a0and Walker King. The actor remembered how King had guided him through rough patches in his career as he joked, \u201cnot until tonight did I find out that I guess I\u2019m an alumni Little and you\u2019re my Big \u2014 who knew?\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tAt the podium, King spoke about how the couple\u2019s mission at Macro has always been that \u201cseeing ourselves represented authentically and accurately is necessary\u201d and promised, \u201cWe\u2019re just getting started and I know many of you are just getting started. There\u2019s so much more for us to do, so many more stories to share, to tell, so many more creative and brilliant artists to collaborate with and to champion and use all of our resources; so many inspiring young people to mentor, like this incredible organization does and just unlocking endless opportunities for these talented young people. There\u2019s so many more communities for us to build, and so we thank you all for this incredible honor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTo close out the evening, Schwartz-Morini was presented her Defender of Potential Award\u00a0by the chairman and CEO of Universal Music Publishing Group Jody Gerson, along with video messages from Deon Sanders, Erin Andrews and Michael Strahan. The gala \u2014 which welcomed guests including Michael Kassan, Syrinthia Studer and Kathryn Busby \u2014 went on to raise over\u00a0$730,000\u00a0to support the organization\u2019s\u00a0one-on-one youth mentoring programs.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Los Angeles turned 70 in star-studded fashion on Wednesday, in a night…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":327138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,162809,162810,2879,162811,114495,2961,224,5337,75244,162812],"class_list":{"0":"post-327137","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-charles-d-king","11":"tag-david-oyelowo","12":"tag-events","13":"tag-karey-burke","14":"tag-kerry-washington","15":"tag-la","16":"tag-los-angeles","17":"tag-losangeles","18":"tag-sherry-lansing","19":"tag-women-in-entertainment"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115424975301003903","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}