sharing experiences continued from page TT1 by Arica Cykiert no sleep for these girls Friendship Circle Wake-a-Thon allows female volunteers to bond over activities and to raise funds. alking through the doors of the Friendship Circle building in West Bloomfield at 10:30 p.m. on Jan. 22, I looked around and saw tons of people dressed in their team colors from head to toe. This is my first year volunteering at the Friendship Circle and I didn't know what to expect. All I knew was that this was the major program all the girls were so excited about. It was the Friendship Circle Girls Wake-a- Thon 2011. The Wake-a-Thon was an event to raise money for Friendship Circle and the good work it does with chil- dren with special needs. The fund- raiser raised almost $10,000. The Wake-a-Thon was also a way Members of the Red Team really get their hands Into the meal they are making during the Iron Chef competition. for the girl volunteers to bond. There were more than 100 volunteers from all over town. I started off only knowing a couple of The Orange Team poses together during the recent girls; but by the end of Friendship Circle Wake-a-Thon. the Wake-a-Thon, I knew so many more. We got started once the clock hit 11 p.m. All the volunteers split up into their teams and started to make up their own cheers to get everyone pumped up. Everyone looked so excited and ready to have an amazing night. The first event was solving a mystery. We were told someone stolen all the money at Friendship Circle and we had to figure out who. The mystery involved communication with our team and putting pieces of information together. The mystery was only one activity we did throughout the night. Around 3 a.m., we played Iron Chef. We had 10 minutes to run around the Friendship Circle building searching for boxes with food ingredients in them. If you found a box, you would take it and place it on your team's table. Afterwards, we had five minutes to switch the ingredients we had with other teams. Then we had a long time to make a meal, using the most ingredients we could. It was so much fun to cook with only the ingredients we found in boxes. All the teams were so creative and everyone helped to make something deli- cious. We had judges taste the meals we created. My team made macaroni and cheese, hash browns and cheesy pasta. The winning team made French toast, chocolate chip pancakes, grilled cheese and salsa and chips. After staying up for eight hours straight playing games and hanging out, we sat down in a circle at 7 a.m. talking about how Friendship Circle im- pacted us. For me personally, Friendship Circle has im- pacted my life in a way that isn't even describable. The kids with special needs we work with are truly inspirational. Volunteering at Friendship Circle has made me realize how much I love to volunteer and make other people happy. Arica Cykiert, 15, is a freshman at Frankel Jewish Academy in West Bloomfield. TT4 teen2teen February 17.2011 Hillel eighth-grader Gavi Weisberg, ECC students Samantha Block and Ethan Endeiman and eighth grader Rand! Traison, all from West Bloomfield students in the school with the youngest, allows the eighth-graders to hone their leadership skills and become role models and an important part of the ECC. "The eighth-grade students have done a wonderful job playing and bond- ing with the youngest and newest students in our school," said Mr. Cutler, the eighth-grade teacher working in collaboration with the ECC. The seventh-grade nutrition mini-class also cooks and gardens with ECC students. One memory I will never forget was during my first week working in the ECC, just before the High Holidays. I was invited to the table by an adorable 3-year-old girl. I asked her what we were playing, and she said, "I'm playing Rosh Hashanah, would you like to join me?" I sat down to a beautiful pretend holiday meal, where a 3-year-old said the prayers and knew the traditions better than I did. Who knew a 13-year-old could go to the ECC and learn something new!" f. Jillian Goldstone, 13, of West Bloomfield is an eighth grader at Hillel Day School In Farmington Hills. { fun fact •. Most lipstick contains fish scales. (fun facts provided by Maddi Gonte) Reporters I Chavivah Bluth, Molly Grossman, Hannah Korelitz, Avi Mendelson, Avielle Movsas, Jamie Rashty, Stephanie Schulman (Akiva Hebrew Day School, Southfield); Yona Isaacs, Gabriella Ring, Claire Sinai (Berkley); Nechama Tawil (Beth Jacob, Oak Park); Madeleine Gonte (Birmingham Groves); Rachel Gorosh, Emily Schottenfels, Mara Stein, Rachael Vettese, Rachel Wein (Bloomfield Hills Andover); Abby Hyman (Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood); Mad Cohen (Community, Ann Arbor); Emily Zussman (Detroit Country Day, Beverly Hills); Jillian Apel, Tamar Brown, Arica Cykiert, Abbie Ginis, Polina Fradkin, Emily Goodman, Helene Glickman, Rachel Goutman, Heather Grossman, Jessica Kahn, Rachel Klein, Noam Saper, Talia Schechet, Lexi Smith, Zoe Soble, Maddy Sot, Sara Weinfeld, Samantha Zwick (Frankel Jewish Academy, West Bloomfield); Rachel Hollander, Ad Well (Harrison, Farmington Hills); Daniel Chandross, Jillian Goldstone (Hillel, Farmington Hills); Mayer Schneider (home schooled); Rachel Berlin, Sam Gringlas, Elie Neuman, Nate Strauss (North Farming- ton); Rob Pasick (Novi); Jordana Hoffman (Oakland Earlyl College, Farmington Hills); Lily Grier, Liza Kohlenberg (Orchard Lake Middle, West Bloomfield); Batsheva Honig (Walled Lake Northern);Liz Nagle (Walled Lake Western); Jennifer Finkel, Abigail Jankelovitz, Heather Rosenbaum (West Bloomfield); Liza Kohlenberg (West Bloomfield Orchard Lake Middle School); Mackenzie Coden (West Bloomfield Walnut Creek) Photographers I Jessica Avery Polk (Frankel), Colton Graub (Cranbrook-Kingswood ) supervising staff Chief Operating Officer I F. Kevin Browett Editorial Director I Robert Sklar Executive Editor I Keri Guten Cohen J Jewish Federation Creative Director I Deborah Schultz IT Director I Deanna Spivey Teen Consultant I Jon Layne Supported by a generous grant from of Metropolitan Detroit the Stephen H. Schulman Millennium Fund. ' ''• A Jewish Renaissance Media publication © 2011 DETROIT JEWISH NEWS