Read about Sally Benson, our longtime Program Director, now retired

March 29, 2021

Sally & her mini-schnauzer, Sparky (who is named after Gilda Radner’s dog, Sparkle)

Sally Benson, MA, MSW, LICSW

Program Director of Gilda’s Club/Cancer Pathways for 18.5 years, now retired

Sally was born and raised on the upper peninsula of Michigan. Early in her career, she worked as a graphic artist, but embracing her “practical side”, she soon became interested in combining art with psychology. She went to grad school and received her MA in Art Therapy. After several internships working at inpatient psychiatric clinics, Sally decided to get her degree in social work so she could get licensed for private practice. It was while she was working on her MSW practicum that she found herself in pediatric oncology at a children’s hospital. 

“I accidentally stumbled onto something I really enjoyed. I found I wasn’t afraid to work with families with children who were very ill. It was a really good fit for me, just an incredible experience”

Later, Sally took a position at Fred Hutchinson. This was in the 90’s, when Hutch was a small family organization of less than a hundred people, occupying just 2 floors at Swedish. When Sally lost her mother to ovarian cancer, she felt she needed a little break from working in oncology. She wasn’t sure she wanted to go back to it, and it was during this transition time, while she was deciding what to do, that she received “a very mysterious email” one Friday night. It was from someone she didn’t know, asking her if she’d be interested in a program director job at Gilda’s Club Seattle. 

Anna Gottlieb, Gilda’s Club Seattle founder and executive director, found out about Sally Benson through a mutual friend at Fred Hutch. She learned that Sally was a person who was very interested in social and emotional support and that her reputation at the Hutch was that she was ‘always trying to get things started’: art therapy, socio-emotional support for families… just the kinds of programs that Gilda’s Club Seattle was going to start. In reading about the job, Sally thought that while she had experience in the realms of psychotherapy and social work, she felt short on experience in actualizing the administrative side of these programs. However, her intuition was telling her to take the job, and she accepted. In the early days, Gilda’s Club Seattle resided in a donated room at the Sears store. Sally described it as “a windowless room with one desk, one computer, and one phone”. She laughed as she recalled how she “used her own dinosaur of a computer” to start designing and coordinating the programs. Once they were moved into the Clubhouse, Sally reached out to UW and developed an internship program to both augment the support group staff and also offer really excellent supervised work for social work interns. 

While Anna continued to raise money, Sally was instrumental in starting many programs, all thriving to this day. These include the Cancer Happens teen education program, Cancer Unwrapped Teen Writing Contest, Camp Sparkle, When Cancer Comes to Work, and more.

The programs grew exponentially. Acquiring teachers and group facilitators (then training them in the Gilda’s Club model) meant that nearly every quarter or semester Sally was working with new social work interns needing constant, ongoing training and supervision; for Sally, this was great. She wanted a lot of hands-on work. She got to know our members very well, which was helpful for program planning. She says she got to “really be there, in their experience” (with patients, family members, caregivers). This gave Sally what she called, “oodles of information on how to plan a program that actually meant something to people”

As time went on, Sally and Anna continued to ask themselves, ‘how else can we serve the community?’ With just enough money to keep things going, new programs still managed to emerge in light of the growing need for support – especially for youth. The Cancer Unwrapped Teen Writing Contest and Cancer Happens Teen Education program were both created during this time when no one else was providing these resources in the community. 

In recent years, the impact of the internet, the growth of Capitol Hill, the increased expense of parking, and traffic all contributed to a decrease in in-person visits to the Clubhouse. However, our members find their support in new and different ways – especially since the pandemic changed the landscape for all types of gatherings. Cancer Pathways programs now serve members through online formats.

“What families need has not changed much in the past 20 years. Parents need support so they feel as though they are not alone. Kids’ support is neglected in the medical setting – they are having an experience of their own. They need to feel normal.” 

We asked Sally what her favorite memory was:

“One of many memorable moments for me was the first ‘Noogiefest’ Halloween party in October 2002. By then, we had a solid core of new members, many of whom we knew quite well. Several of our families, individual adult members, volunteers and staff attended or helped out – in costume; it was so much fun! 

Comments heard on the way out were along the lines of: 

“This is the first time we have felt normal since diagnosis.” 

“I am so grateful to see my kids happy and having fun.” 

“I met someone from a support group and I think I’ll join, too.” 

For me, feeling the joy and warmth of that community event and hearing those comments confirmed that we were really building a community of people living with cancer and that realization was very exciting and satisfying.”

Sally created social and emotional support programming for children, teens, and families impacted by cancer. Anna shares:

“Sally was my true partner for more than 20 years. We opened Gilda’s Club together. I relied on her for program planning, program implementation and program evaluation. There was no task too big for her and nothing stopped her. She always came through. I could never have accomplished as much as I did without Sally by my side.  She was involved in every decision we made since the beginning. She made coming to work everyday a pleasure. She has had a profound impact on thousands of cancer survivors and their families. Sally was a gift to Gilda’s Club and Cancer Pathways.”

We couldn’t possibly cover everything in one article, so please stay tuned for more stories from the history of Gilda’s Club Seattle, now Cancer Pathways. Thank you for everything, Sally.