Press Contact:
Heather Wilner
973-251-0411
[email protected]
2023
You Did It! The Friendship Circle Walks Again
Exuberant cheers of “You did it!” greeting those crossing the finish line capped off a morning of joy, warmth, and community at LifeTown in Livingston at the annual Friendship Circle Walk and Run, even against the backdrop of Hamas terror in Israel.
“This is my favorite day of the year,” said Ellie Minsky, a longtime volunteer, college student, former staffer, and sister of a participant. “It’s the energy, seeing people I haven’t seen in a year, and seeing everyone come together for one day for a cause. And in a time like this, we all need to come together and have a reason to be happy.”
For so many people, the annual Friendship Circle walk, run, and roll, as the organization’s major fundraiser is unofficially known, is a day to celebrate a place that embraces them like no other. From its unique facility and programming to respite camps and teen buddy home visits to play spaces welcoming not only children with special needs but also their siblings, it’s a place where entire families can relax without explanation or apology.
Over HOW MANY people attended this year’s event, including 166 runners at the second annual official USATF 5K run, a 20 percent increase over last year. Volunteers stationed around the run cheered on participants and urged them forward. Music at short intervals provided a burst of energy for added motivation. The day encapsulated the organizational philosophy to “Be Amazing!”
Among the runners at the 5K starting line, numbers pinned to their Friendship Circle jerseys, stretching, jumping, hugging and readying themselves, was Steven Waxman from Livingston. “It’s a good cause to come out and support the organization and get a couple of steps in,” he said, adding, “I would be here anyway but the context of the recent attacks on Israel gives a higher emphasis to showing up.”
Capturing the mood in the crowd, runner Abby Halpern said, “I’m excited to be here to support the Friendship Circle. Am Yisrael Chai!”
Walkers gathered under signs reading “Team Zach,” “Schechner Schleppers,” “West Essex High School,” even “Friends of Fang Gong.” Some are longtime participants. Others came for the first time this year. A few came to remember family members who once participated.
Brooke Czarka came with four of her children and her husband. They were “Team Batya,” named for a daughter who passed away 10 years ago. “Friendship Circle was very important in our lives and every year we bring everyone to the walk,” she said.
Matthew, 30, was joined by a large group of extended family. “It’s just a lot of fun,” said Matthew, a participant since he was 9. “Matthew grew up with the organization,’ said his mother, Meryl Stone. “We’re all here every year and we’re glad the event wasn’t canceled this year,” she said, referring to recent events. “It’s more complicated this year, but we are happy to be together. We cannot allow terrorists to win.”
Ben and Angela Snipes were among the newest members, participating for a little more than a year. They arrived with their four young children including Cy, who has special needs. “Friendship Circle is so special. So few people understand us the way the people here do,” said Angela, who related that when she arrived at the Friendship Circle for the first time, COO Toba Grossbaum joyfully held out her arms to Cy. Like so many others, they commented on the inclusion of all of their children in Friendship Circle events. “You can find programs and therapists for children with special needs, but not places and spaces like this that nurture the whole family,” said Angela. As she spoke, her voice breaking as she welled up with tears, the song “I can be anything” started to play in the background. Just then, their son Abe ran over to shout, “This is the best day ever!”
Israel was ever present in the backdrop.
The Weissberg family gathered under a “Team Holden” sign. Holden, 9, has been a participant for 6 years. Recent events, including the hostage taking by Hamas, hit the family especially hard, making participation even more poignant this year. “We think about someone like Holden–what would it be like for someone like him to be kidnapped?” asked mom Lauren Weissberg. “So, we are here to celebrate and also to pray together.”
While there were opportunities for community solidarity with Israel, the mood remained light and focused on the mission of the Friendship Circle.
Runners started crossing the finish line. Some, like Eddie Steinberg, who is used to running marathons, were barely winded. Others worked hard for the win. “I’m not a runner, and when I felt myself flagging, the music offered just the energy I needed to keep going,” said Yisroel Rosenblum, Friendship Circle Living Legacy director and event organizer, who ran for the second year in a row.
The countdown to the walk began. The crowd surged forward, crossing the street. Groups chattered, wandered, rolled and followed the crowd. As the music blared, longtime participant Robyn, walking with her father and an aid, grinned widely and started to dance.
Arriving back at the campus, the petting zoo was open, and the festivities were just getting started. Family fun day features included face painting, bouncy houses, rides, and a climbing wall, as well as the opportunity to write a letter to an Israeli soldier, and to lay tefillin to connect spiritually with people in Israel.
Evan Abraham, 16, from Millburn, took the opportunity to put on tefillin. “It’s a mitzvah, and it’s a nice thing to do,” he said. “I have a lot of family in Israel so this is very emotional and this action makes me feel connected to them.”
Finishing the walk, Monica, 27, a Friendship Circle participant since its inception, said, “I think Friendship Circle is a great program to help! I like being a part of it and I like being here with family and friends.”
Behind her, Larry Kaufman from Colorado, who happened to be in New Jersey for a funeral, decided to join the walk in a show of solidarity. “If we don’t do these kinds of events, the terrorists win,” he said.
“We are so grateful to be able to bring the whole community together, to celebrate our volunteers and our amazing participants, to walk and roll with them, and to show our solidarity with Israel,” said Rabbi Zalman Grossbaum, Friendship Circle CEO and executive director. “The Friendship Circle walk is the largest gathering of the MetroWest Jewish community, and here, everyone has something amazing to share.”
2022
FC Walk and Run: Just Amazing!
By Johanna Ginsberg
Throngs of people joined the festivities at LifeTown, in Livingston, NJ, on Sunday, October 30, for the annual Friendship Circle walk, now a walk and run. For the first time, the walk was preceded by a 5K run that attracted 112 runners. Hundreds more participated in the annual Friendship Circle Walk, with an estimated 2,000 in attendance over the course of the day.
As the horn sounded, and the runners were off! Feet pounding, finding a rhythm, they made two giant loops, up and down gentle hills, under the canopy of trees in brilliant fall colors. Among the throng, longtime Friendship Circle supporters mixed with those drawn by the run.
The run and walk raised funds and awareness for Friendship Circle and LifeTown, which provide programs that benefit children, teens, and young adults with special needs and their families.
“Races are fun, especially with the number of people we're going to have here today,” said Ari Wise of Livingston, a longtime Friendship Circle volunteer and a runner who helped organize the 5K. “You can always run on a Sunday morning by yourself. When you run with this kind of excitement, it makes it that much more fun.”
Some, like Ryan Teicher, came to support their children. A runner with marathons and half-marathons under his belt, Teicher’s son Jonah is a Friendship Circle participant.
Others came to support the organization. Robin Amster, whose grown children volunteered for Friendship Circle as teenagers said “My heart is still with this organization…If I’m going to be running today anyway, I might as well do it for Friendship Circle!”
Bryson and Mackenzie Fonnville of Randolph have been running 5ks through the fall around the area. This week, they chose the Friendship Circle inaugural 5K because Mackenzie’s older brother has autism. “We like to run 5Ks but we also like to support amazing programs that help people. So when I saw the opportunity to do this, I thought, this is perfect.”
Jack Thompson, a 14-year-old athlete from Morristown Beard School came after his school suggested it. He was so excited learning about the organization that he decided on the spot to become a volunteer once the race was done.
More than a few were running their first 5K. Susan Schaechter of Cedar Grove decided she wanted to run a 5K before her upcoming 70th birthday. Shira Stein decided to take on the run “to stand tall with volunteers and the Friendship Circle families.” She trained in the weeks leading up to the run with Friendship Circle founders, Rabbi Zalman and Toba Grossbaum, and Rabbi Yisroel Rosenblum, who also ran for the first time. Katelyn Wang, 11, and her brother Dennis (14) saw a flyer and thought it looked like fun.
They were not the youngest in the crowd: At least one runner had not even reached double digits. Eli Sobel of Roseland, just seven years old (“I’m almost eight!”) ran with his mother, Melissa Sobel. They have been running together through the fall, and completed another 5K already. “I’m not waiting for you this time, mom!” he warned his mother just before the race started. She just laughed. They were running in memory of Eli’s grandfather, Ivan Sobel, a longtime Friendship Circle supporter.
While the runners were still on the course, homemade signs started to fill the air and families gathered and greeted one another under their banners: “Rebecca’s World” or “Team Trenk.” Already the festivities created a sense of excitement and possibility. As the music blared, the petting zoo opened, popcorn was flowing, inflatable bouncy houses were ready to go.
Standing under a “Team Cole” sign, Clare Harelik Mevorah said, “There's nowhere else that you can bring children with special needs and have so much programming and events and support for not only the children, but the whole family.” She’s been involved since her son Cole, now in the young adult group, started to participate in the children’s program. Besides “always doing innovative, wonderful things,” she said, “The staff is phenomenal.” But more important, she pointed to the basic philosophy of Friendship Circle: “Everybody's always inspiring one another to be amazing.”
While 12-year-old Thea Gardin and her father Dov ran in the 5K, her mother, Hannah Gardin came a little later with the family’s two-year-old dog, Shadow, to join the walk. A second daughter is a Friendship Circle participant. Shadow was happy to receive plenty of pets before finishing the walk, well, with a quick run to the finish. “Friendship Circle does amazing work and we want to get the word out!” said Hannah.
After the walk, longtime Friendship Circle participants Rebecca Seid and Zachary Ennis, now part of the 21 and older group, were all smiles. Rebecca loved having dogs join the group on the walk, she said. Zachary said, “I liked walking with my friends and family.”
Elit Kirschenbaum, who was getting ready for the walk with her sister, her husband, and her daughter Ivy, the youngest of four, who participates in the Friendship Circle, offered a very personal window into what makes the Friendship Circle so special. Beyond the creative programming, the staff, the volunteers and even the incredible sensory-aware LifeTown building, she described how the team lives the basic premise behind the whole enterprise: helping families of children with special needs, whatever that may mean.
Elit recalls coming to the walk shortly after her youngest was born with special needs eleven years ago. She had been invited by a friend, arrived with all four of her children, looked around at the other families, and fell into a kind of shock. “I just stood there, and I couldn’t move,” she recalled.
Although they had not met yet, Friendship Circle executive director Toba Grossbaum saw her reaction. “She immediately went and got volunteers to grab my other three children, who were eight and five and three, and take them off to the bouncy houses and the rides and everything to give me time to kind of process what was happening to my life.”
That was the beginning of the Friendship Circle’s outreach, something she needed but could not have dreamed existed. “Toba became an integral part of my life. She was the one that would come over with challahs and come over with a million types of formula when Ivy wasn’t thriving…she was the one that would call me to check in. She made sure that we were taken care of in a way that no one else knew how to take care of us.”
Elit is clear about the difficult road she and her family have traveled, and the years it took for them to feel comfortable at the walk. “What we found was that every year, we had a tremendous amount of support at the walk. And we eventually got to the point where now, coming to the walk is wonderful,” she said. “I love bringing new people to the walk because they get to experience our lives and see that even though it's different, it's not scary and it’s not sad. It gives them a new perspective.”
Finishing the walk, Cole Mevorah was all smiles. “How much fun did you have?” asked his mother. And his smile grew even larger as he moved his head to respond and register his joy, and the family headed off to enjoy some of the afternoon’s activities, which included, inflatables, the petting zoo, plenty of food, an arcade, face painting, music, and a show featuring acrobatics presented by Cirque-Tacular Entertainment.
"It was a perfect day all around, from the weather to the amazing turnout,” said Rabbi Zalman Grossbaum. “The new run added an extra excitement to what has always been a special day for the families and the entire community. With 2,000 in attendance, the Friendship Circle walk and run makes a statement about how important inclusion is and the impact we are all having," he said.
2021
The Way It Should Be
Community comes together for annual FCwalk
Eight hundred moms, dads, grandparents, friends and, of course, children, walked, ran and rolled at the annual FCwalk and carnival.
While some of this year’s walk participants participated in the annual event by walking around their neighborhoods, other Friendship Circle supporters met up at LifeTown where they completed the annual walk under team banners and, in some cases, with the support of canine companions.
Each and every person, regardless of where they walked, came together to show their support for children, teens and adults with special needs and their families.
“When I look around I get excited,” said Tamara Jacobson, whose daughter Ella participates in Friendship Circle programs. “The walk brings awareness back to the community and brings our children back into the minds of typical children.”
According to Rabbi Zalman Grossbaum, CEO of LifeTown and Friendship Circle, “There was amazing energy and excitement both online with the virtual walk and in person at LifeTown. Everyone who participated made a difference in the life of an individual with special needs by helping us raise needed funds for the ongoing and expanding slate of programming.”
Among the fundraisers was a group of about a dozen eighth-graders from Heritage Middle School who raised close to a thousand dollars on behalf of Friendship Circle. Two of those participants—Lily Mandler and Jacob Glazer—both volunteer at Friendship Circle regularly, while another participant, Avery Scherr said her brother, who is now in college, benefited from FC in the past.
“I feel like it made him part of a community when it was hard for him,” said Avery.
Her classmate Lily said, “I just wanted everyone to come together and understand what’s going on and how honored we are to be helping other kids.”
Jacob’s mother, Gail Glazer, who also attended the walk was “very proud” of what her son and his friends accomplished. “They could have been doing anything else on a Sunday and they choose to be here.”
Throughout the afternoon, the parking lot at LifeTown was a sea of smiling faces as children jumped their way across bounce houses, rode on a train, trotted on a pony, and sat for an amusement park ride into the air. For those who preferred quieter fare, there was face painting, sand art and carnival games. Kids even got to step inside the new Hatzaloh of West Orange and Livingston ambulance.
Topping off the afternoon was a Wacky Science show that had the children laughing in amazement.
Among the families who participated in the walk was the Haskell family—Dan and Ariella with their children Ma’ayan, 12; Liana, 10; and Erez, 3. They have been coming for the last five years to show their support to a friend’s daughter, a Friendship Circle participant who, according to Ariella, “gets the best activities and the best care at LifeTown.”
Dan Haskell said seeing everyone together “is the way a community has to be … the way it should be.”
As this was the first walk since the COVID-19 pandemic began, and it was also a chance for people to get together and have fun. Some adults sat around tables catching up with old friends, as their children ran around them. Others noshed on hot dogs, knishes and a favorite with the kids: popcorn.
As of press time some $175,000 was raised for Friendship Circle with donations continuing to come in. Funds are used for programming at LifeTown.
