Sherry McConkey: Giving Back, One Challenge at a Time
Sherry McConkey is widely known in Tahoe/Truckee as the wife of the late, famed skier and ski-BASE athlete Shane McConkey, as founder of the Shane McConkey Foundation, and a popular yoga teacher. But the story of how Sherry became such an active part of the Tahoe community started on the other side of the world.
Born to a South African mother and Persian father, Sherry entered the world under complicated circumstances. Her mother, who was a model, gave birth in an adoption home in Ireland because in the 1960s, it would have been complicated to have a mixed-race child in South Africa. When Sherry was born with blonde hair and blue eyes, her mother was able to bring her back to South Africa and raise her there.
After spending her first years in Iran, Sherry grew up near the coastal city of Durban in South Africa. By age 21, she was ready to see more of the world.
“When I was 21, I decided to travel the world and find my birth father,” Sherry said.
With South African currency stretching only so far abroad, she found herself working, traveling, and working again as she made her way across Europe.
“I had some insanely amazing adventures, great and bad, beautiful and crazy,” Sherry said. “Three years of a very innocent, naive young South African traveling the world.”
Along the way, she saw snow for the first time while visiting Switzerland and immediately fell in love with the mountains. Eventually, her search for her father led her to North America.
But shortly before she planned to meet him, everything changed.
“As I was about to come to the States to meet my dad, he left without telling me,” Sherry said. “Basically, I was like, ‘Screw you. I’m done looking. I’m done trying.’”
Without a destination in mind, Sherry followed recommendations from friends and found herself driving to Tahoe.
“I found it miraculous,” she said. “As I drove up the West Shore and the harvest moon was coming out of the lake, I was like, ‘Oh my god, this place is amazing.’”
What was supposed to be a single winter stay has now turned into 36 years.
Tahoe became even more meaningful after she met professional skier Shane McConkey. Together they built a life and raised their daughter, Ayla. When Shane died in a ski-BASE accident in Italy in 2009, Sherry considered leaving the region.
“When Shane died, the community just wrapped their arms around Ayla and me,” she said. “It was like a family around me. I was like, ‘How am I ever going to leave this?’”
The years that followed were marked by loss throughout the community. Many longtime locals remember the early 2000s as a period of repeated tragedies.
“I got to a point where I was like, ‘How much more can I take?’” Sherry said. “But when I looked at other places to go, I would realize I couldn’t leave my Tahoe family.”
Instead, she stayed and poured her energy into giving back.
In the years following Shane’s death, Sherry helped establish the Shane McConkey Foundation. What began as a way to support environmental causes the couple cared about grew into programs that are now nationwide. Since its founding in 2011, the nonprofit has donated one million dollars to environmental causes, kids health and wellness, and projects that impact the Tahoe/Truckee region.
“When I first started the foundation, I think I was still in shock,” Sherry said. “We didn’t quite know what to do.”
One of its most successful projects grew from a student environmental initiative led by a teacher at Donner Trail Elementary partaking in the Shane McConkey Eco Challenge. Today, the foundation’s Don’t Drop the Top program operates lid collection sites throughout the region that have diverted 8,200 pounds of plastic from local landfills.
“The kids partaking in the Eco Challenges are mind-blowing and so amazing,” Sherry said. “It gives me hope for the future.”
For Sherry, the foundation reflects the same philosophy that defined Shane’s life: maximizing enjoyment in life.
“The foundation, in a nutshell, is a combination of fun and not taking life so seriously, but then intense and taking life really seriously,” she said. “A good balance.”
After decades in Tahoe, that balance continues to guide her. The woman who once crossed continents searching for connection ultimately found it in a mountain town that became family.
“My hope for Tahoe is to become the most environmentally conscious town in the world,” Sherry said. “It’s breathtakingly beautiful, and you only have one life. Live it.”
