The Friendship Circle on Mercer Island just completed its second annual Wraps Toy Drive, donating over 700 toys to special needs and foster children throughout King County. The Friendship Circle Wraps is a time when “kids give to kids.”

“This was unbelievable,” said Rabbi Bogomilsky of the Friendship Circle. “The selfless acts of kids giving to other kids.”

Toy drives hosted by four participating schools — Northwest Yeshiva High School, Seattle Hebrew Academy, Jewish Day School and Menachem Mendel Cheder of Seattle — enabled the Friendship Circle to donate 715 toys to both low-income children with special needs and foster children via the Seattle nonprofit Treehouse, Kindering Center in Bellevue and Arc of King County. Bogomilsky said Mercer Island community members also donated gifts and wrapping paper.

Wrapping parties for over 100 teens at the Mercer Island office gave local teens a chance to actively participate in the act of giving. The impact and reach of these toys is widespread; over 700 toys were donated throughout King County from this small Mercer Island-based organization.

The Friendship Circle of Washington was founded in 2004, and is a chapter of an international organization. The Friendship Circle extends a helping hand to families who have children with special needs and involves them in a full range of social experiences. The Circle’s unique formula introduces teenage volunteers to the children with special needs, and through shared experiences, both are enriched.