Friendship Circle Reaches Out to Children with Special Needs

Good deeds are what every single day is about for Chana and Eli Solomon.

The married couple came to Baltimore from Brooklyn, N.Y., about a year ago and started shepherding a local chapter of the Friendship Circle, a nonprofit that pairs teen volunteers with children who have special needs.

The Pikesville chapter of the Friendship Circle is a branch of the national organization whose roots began back in Detroit in 1994 as a Chabad Lubavitch program. It became successful and started expanding to other areas of the United States. Today, it has chapters as far off as Sao Paulo, Johannesburg and Jerusalem.

While it was originally inspired by the late Lubaticher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, Mrs. Solomon emphasizes that the Friendship Circle is for all Jews. Currently, there are about 25 families participating in the Friendship Circle in the Baltimore metropolitan region.

As a small nonprofit that exists primarily on private contributions, the Friendship Circle markets primarily through word-of-mouth and reaches out to local schools, including Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School in Pikesville and Roland Park Country School, where the organization has been successful in recruiting teen volunteers.

For instance, around Chanukah time, Mrs. Solomon was in touch with a club at Beth Tfiloh called the Disability Awareness Club. The DAC runs programs in the community, and with the Friendship Circle they put on a birthday party at Beth Tfiloh for Friendship Circle’s kids who had birthdays that fell during the previous few months, with cupcakes, party hats and a lot of fun.

Friendship Circle also had a table at Jewish Volunteer Connection’s annual “Mitzvah Day” last December at the Park Heights Jewish community Center. There, the Solomons arranged for kids and adults to write Chanukah cards, sending good wishes to soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces.

Later that same day, they helped run a “Chanukah Wonderland” activity at the annual menorah-lighting at the Inner Harbor. Friendship Circle families, as well as teen volunteers, manned the booths there.

“It was a jam-packed few days,” Mrs. Solomon said, “starting with small good deeds and ending with great big smiles. It was wonderful, and we made a lot of children happy.”

One of Friendship Circle’s programs is called Friends@Home, where high school students are paired with a family that has a child with a disability, such as Down syndrome, autism, attention deficit disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. For an hour a week, a teen will come by and spend time with a youngster.

Friendship Circle volunteer Emily Joffe, 18, attends Roland Park Country School and helps with Libby, also 18.

“When I started, it was a community service, and now it’s developed into a friendship,” Joffe said. “Every week, I look forward to going to Libby’s house because after a long day at school, it makes me feel like such a better person. We usually play card games, but what’s best is just talking ‘girl talk.’ Even though I’m going to college next year, when I come home I’m going to visit Libby.”

Lisa Wiederlight is the mother of Josh, a 16-year-old with autism. Since the fall, two boys associated with the Friendship Circle regularly hang out with Josh, usually on weekends.

“We don’t always get to see our kids just hang out with other kids,” Wiederlight said. “It’s a normal thing, but normal is relative when you have a kid with a disability.”

Wiederlight signed up about six months ago with the Friendship Circle, and after a vetting process the boys have been meeting.

As a background check, Mrs. Solomon meets with teen volunteers and their parents, requiring reference letters and an agreement to operate under a code of conduct. She said she gets to know each family to understand what that particular child likes, whether it’s Legos or reading books. In all meetings, she said, there always needs to be a parent nearby.

For the future, the Solomons envision opening a facility that will cater to children with special needs, including a gymnasium, a library and a restaurant.

For information about the Friendship Circle, visit jointhecircle.com.

Abe Novick is a writer and communications consultant and can be reached at abe@abebuzz.com.

Photo of Eli and Chana Solomon with their daughter, Mushkie.