BY JENNIFER LEBOVICH, Miami Herald
Every Wednesday after 6 p.m., 11-year-old Sofia Navarrete plays charades or Cranium with two of her older, high school friends.
Sofia, who has a learning and speech impairment, was matched with the teens through The Friendship Circle, an organization that pairs kids with special needs with teenage volunteers.
”They’re wonderful friends that offer Sofia the ability to hang out with older kids,” said Libby Navarrete, Sofia’s mom, talking about getting her daughter ready for the transition from fifth grade to middle school at Kenwood K-8 Center.
Sunday morning, Sofia and a few hundred people walked in a 3K fundraiser for the programs.
”I like to make her smile,” said Dana Bensadon, a 10th-grader at Coral Reef Senior High, who took part in the walk. She volunteers along with her best friend, Vanina Zack, a 10th-grader at Miami Killian High.
The two walked from the Chabad Center of Kendall & Pinecrest, which started The Friendship Circle program in 2003. Now, about 100 high school volunteers work with kids and teens — from ages 2 to 19 — with disabilities.
The volunteers go to the kids’ homes once a week.
HELPING PARENTS
”The parents can do laundry or relax and it’s easier for the child to warm up because it’s in their own home, there’s privacy,” said Nechama Harlig, who runs the program and whose husband is the rabbi at the Chabad.
The Friendship Circle offers several activities, including yoga, music and arts and crafts. Even before Sunday’s walkathon began, the program had already raised more than $97,500 for its programs.
The fundraising was mostly done online, with participants encouraged to send e-mails to everyone on their contact list asking for donations.
”The beauty of this fundraiser is all the little money,” Rabbi Yossi Harlig said. ‘Most of the people were giving $25, $50, $100.”
Before the walk, brothers Harrison, 7, and Jackson Margulies, 5, played in a bounce house in front of the Chabad, with a balloon in each hand.
Both are in the autism spectrum and in the program.
Two volunteers started with Jackson when he was a 1 ½, an age when he spent much of the time crying, said his mother, Stacey Margulies.
”By the second year, he cried when they left,” Margulies said.
The boys and teens spend the weekly visit playing bingo and other board games, making Jell-O or baking a cake.
”A lot of fun because they spend time with me while they play,” Harrison said.
”It is good because I love them,” said Jackson, who along with his brother goes to Howard Drive Elementary.
Margulies welcomes the break.
”It’s one less time I have to be on duty,” she said, “and they’re not watching TV or playing video games. They have the interaction they need and it’s one on one.”
A STRONG RESPONSE
Her husband, Jason, an attorney, said the responses he received to the e-mail announcing the fundraiser were overwhelming.
”I got a response from a person I spoke to once in Hawaii who said what a phenomenal cause and sent $100,” he said.
