Lazer Beats – Lighting Up LifeTown with Music and Dance

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Hannah and Benji’s Bnei Mitzvah Project

Help Us Light Up LifeTown with Music and Dance

In honor of our Bnei Mitzvah, we are launching the Lazer Beats Project to bring more rhythm, joy, and movement to LifeTown.

LifeTown is a place where everyone shines, and we want to help make the music and dance programs even more exciting. With your support, LifeTown can add new instruments, speakers, microphones, headphones, and other music-related equipment that will help our friends express themselves and celebrate through music and dance.

Together, we can turn up the volume on joy and light up LifeTown with music, movement, and heart.

Thank you for helping us make a difference

Hannah and Benji

Savanna’s Bat Mitzvah

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For my Bat Mitzvah project, I’m hosting a dance party for the kids at Friendship Circle to raise money and celebrate with joy!

Friendship Circle at LifeTown is a place I care deeply about — I volunteer there often and love being part of the fun, inclusive community. I thought a dance party would be the perfect way to bring everyone together and make beautiful memories.

I’d be so grateful if you’d consider supporting my project.
Donations will go directly to Friendship Circle to help create more amazing experiences for the kids.

Thank you!
Love,
Savanna

Ardyn and Maya’s B’not Mitzvah

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For our B’not Mitzvah project,  we are raising money to improve the Salon at Lifetown. To support this special cause, we will be creating a beautifying and glamourous Spa Day on March 2nd from 10:30am-12pm at The Salon at Lifetown.

If you’re interested in joining us for this amazing event, please reach out to Ardyn and Maya at iAMbeautiful07039@gmail.com

The Friendship Circle at Lifetown holds a special place in our hearts because we volunteer there at least once a week. We think a spa day will be a fun, yet relaxing way to connect with all of our friends and escape from our daily stress.  It would be so meaningful for us to enjoy feeling refreshed and more confident together where iAMbeauiful, you are beautiful, and we are beautiful together.  We hope you can join us!

The Friendship Circle at Lifetown is an inclusive and accessible facility that provides incredible opportunities for individuals with special needs. Through life-skills programs, job training, educational opportunities, sports, dance, music, theater and art; The Friendship Circle at LifeTown creates a world where everyone is seen, heard and loved.

We invite you to consider donating in honor of our B’not Mitzvah project. Your contributions will go directly towards funding the LifeTown Salon.

To donate, please use our personal link: https://wecare.fcnj.com/campaigns/bnot-mitzvah

For more information about the Friendship Circle at LifeTown, please visit:
www.lifetown.com
www.fcnj.com

Thank you so much for your generosity.

Love,
Ardyn and Maya

Running with Love: Honoring Family, Supporting Friendship Test

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2025 marks ten years since losing my brother Joshua and my dad Ira. Their absence has been felt tremendously over the past decade by myself, my mom, and many others whose lives were impacted by them both.

 

Joshua – epitome of strength and resilience in the face of adversity, contagious laugh, innocent and pure.   

 

Ira – bigger-than-life personality with even better hair, generous heart, and profoundly dedicated to the people he loved. 

 

To celebrate their memory on this momentous anniversary, I’ve decided to take on a meaningful challenge: running the Philadelphia Love Run Half Marathon on Sunday, March 30. In their honor, I’m raising funds for the Friendship Circle, an organization that has been close to my family’s heart for over twenty years, that creates inclusive communities and provides vital support to individuals with special needs and their families. My mom Alayne ran the Miami Half Marathon exactly nine years ago representing the Friendship Circle in their honor, and I’m excited to continue the tradition. 

 

My goal is to celebrate their lives by making a difference in the lives of others. Your support, whether big or small, will help keep their legacy alive through the work of the Friendship Circle. Every step I take will be in memory of my brother and dad, and with your help, we can ensure their spirit continues to inspire kindness, community, and connection. Thank you for joining me on this journey and helping to honor their memory. 

Running with Love: Honoring Family, Supporting Friendship

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2025 marks ten years since losing my brother Joshua and my dad Ira. Their absence has been felt tremendously over the past decade by myself, my mom, and many others whose lives were impacted by them both.

 

Joshua – epitome of strength and resilience in the face of adversity, contagious laugh, innocent and pure.   

 

Ira – bigger-than-life personality with even better hair, generous heart, and profoundly dedicated to the people he loved. 

 

To celebrate their memory on this momentous anniversary, I’ve decided to take on a meaningful challenge: running the Philadelphia Love Run Half Marathon on Sunday, March 30. In their honor, I’m raising funds for the Friendship Circle, an organization that has been close to my family’s heart for over twenty years, that creates inclusive communities and provides vital support to individuals with special needs and their families. My mom Alayne ran the Miami Half Marathon exactly nine years ago representing the Friendship Circle in their honor, and I’m excited to continue the tradition. 

 

My goal is to celebrate their lives by making a difference in the lives of others. Your support, whether big or small, will help keep their legacy alive through the work of the Friendship Circle. Every step I take will be in memory of my brother and dad, and with your help, we can ensure their spirit continues to inspire kindness, community, and connection. Thank you for joining me on this journey and helping to honor their memory. 

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Abby’s Bat Mitzvah

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I am excited to share a special milestone in my life with you—my Bat Mitzvah. In honor of this occasion, I have chosen to volunteer with the Friendship Circle, an organization that provides support for children and teens with special needs and their families. As part of my commitment, I am dedicated to enhancing their art programs, which bring joy and creative expression to the lives of these incredible individuals.

The Friendship Circle’s mission is close to my heart, and I am reaching out to invite you to partner with me in supporting this amazing organization. Your generous donation will help us continue to offer vital programs and services that make a real difference in our community.

Please consider making a donation to the Friendship Circle to help me reach my goal. Together, we can bring smiles, support, and opportunities to children and teens with special needs.

Thank you for your support and for being a part of this meaningful journey with me.

Abby

Alexa’s Bat Mitzvah

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Dear Family and Friends,

Friendship Circle provides support for children and teens with special needs and their families. Friendship Circle’s distinctive  approach to volunteering pairs participants with teens to help provide a meaningful, inspirational, and enriching experience for everyone involved. I volunteer  in many Friendship Circle events and chose to support the organization in honor of my Bat Mitzvah.

please consider donating to this amazing organization to further enhance their program.

Love

Alexa

1,000 Rep Pull Up Challenge

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   The Friendship Circle is an organization that’s incredibly close to my heart. I first got involved with the organization when I was just 17 years old, and since then, it’s had a profound impact on my life.

Through The Friendship Circle, I’ve learned the true meaning of volunteering and the power that it has to educate on values of establishing purpose, cultivating responsibility, and giving back. I’ve seen firsthand the incredible impact that the organization has on individuals with special needs and their families, providing critical support and friendship to those who need it most.

I’ve evolved into someone who pushes himself to the limit by taking on new challenges. Over the years, I’ve accomplished some unique feats in the name of fundraising for important causes.

In the past, I completed a 1,018 pushup challenge in an hour that raised enough money to feed 20,000 people suffering from food insecurity. Last year, I took on the grueling 4x4x48 challenge, running 4 miles every 4 hours for 48 hours, then adding an additional 2 miles for a total of 50 miles in 48 hours. Through that challenge, I raised over $15,000 towards curing Alzheimer’s through research in memory of both my grandmothers whom I lost to the disease.

Now, I’m taking on my biggest challenge yet. I’ll be attempting to perform 1000 pullups to raise awareness and funds for The Friendship Circle. The goal is to perform 5 pull ups every minute on the minute until I reach 1000 reps (on a bar I’ve never trained on).

Despite labrum surgery, disc protrusions in my lower back, and all the excuses I can muster up, the reality is that a fulfilling life must be earned and never taken for granted.

Can I do this? 1000 Pull Ups!?!

Join me on March 12, 2023, via live stream on Instagram (@insidetheinspired) in supporting The Friendship Circle by donating today.

Your donation will help to ensure that this incredible organization can continue to do their amazing work and support individuals with special needs in our community, learning valuable life skills that give people purpose.

Together, we can make a formidable impact through The Friendship Circle and the individuals and families that they serve.

Thank you in advance for your trust, your support, and lastly, your generosity.

1000, here we come!

Regards,

Jonathan Z. Cohen

 

Annie’s Bat Mitzvah

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Dear Friends,

Friendship Circle holds a very special meaning to me. Therefore, in lieu of gifts, I respectfully ask that you make a donation to this amazing organizations and help realize one of my goals for my Bat Mitzvah.

The Friendship Circle engages children and teens with special needs while also inspiring teenagers to give of their free time to connect with these kids. Though I have been participating with my family at various Friendship Circle events since I was a toddler, now that I am of age, this past year I have had the privilege of being a teen volunteer and making a connection on my own.

With Covid hopefully mostly behind us, the organization is ramping up programming and bookings from schools for LifeTown – their one-of-a-kind, state-of-the-art facility that enhances the individual, educational and therapeutic needs of thousands of children with special needs.

Additionally, Friendship Circle also distributes a “Shabbat Kit” to area hospitals. This program and these kits, which were created and dedicated in memory of my paternal grandmother Jocheved Orbach (Baba Z”L),  are packaged by young adults with special abilities, and contain essential items for patients to observe Shabbat during their hospital stay.

My goal is to help fund various programs, including the packaging of the Shabbat Kits, which will enable children to continue to develop throughout the upcoming year. 

For more information, please visit www.FCNJ.com