Tag Archives: Q&A

A Charity Representative’s Adventure Highlights: Meet Sonja

Meet Our Charity Representatives: Sonja

We love nothing more than talking about the incredible experiences of all the people involved in our adventures – from participants and charity partners, to our team leaders and local guides, and everyone in between.

And today we want to talk about our awesome charity representatives!

Our charity representatives play an important role as we work together to help participants reach their challenge goals all in the name of a greater purpose.

To give you some more insight, we spoke to Sonja, charity representative from Catholic Mission. On the 31st January, she travelled to Myanmar for Catholic Mission’s Trek to Reach Out – a challenge that was both a physical journey and cultural immersion to witness and support the work of the Catholic Church.

Inspired Travel Operations Manager Danny was the team leader on this trek and spoke of Sonja fondly, “She was an extremely knowledgeable, friendly and an outgoing charity representative…The best one I’ve had on any adventure.”

Personally for Sonja, her highlights from Catholic Mission’s Trek to Reach Out stem from being able to actually experience the adventure along with the participants and be a part of their mission in action.

“Walking alongside Catholic Mission supporters and sharing in their journey, their stories of mission and faith whilst aiming to gently immerse our supporters and myself in the local traditions, customs, faith and life of the resilient and beautiful people of Myanmar.”

As a charity rep, Sonja’s role was to create and build a deeper connection with and amongst Catholic Mission supporters through our trek.

“Connecting with the supporters at a deeper level of engagement, especially during the project visits and moments of encounter with our guides and other local people was an enriching experience. Walking and talking with supporters for the 3 day trek allowed us to slow down our pace and share stories of our own lives and the experience we were immersed in.”

One element we try and incorporate where possible on our adventures are project visits – this gives participants the opportunity to directly see the impact their fundraising will have upon the local community. Sonja pointed this out as the highlight for the supporters on the Catholic Mission trek, “The impact was profound and many supporters are still communicating with me on their experiences.”

Sonja also shared some great advice for other charity representatives looking at partaking in a fundraising challenge for the first time.

“Be open to the immersive experience surrounding you, support your donors on their journey by listening and walking alongside them and understand that the challenge may just be beginning of a relationship with this group of supporters-much can happen after the experience.”

Sonja is just one of many charity representatives we have had the privilege of working with.