What Wouldn't You Do?
by Sami Dines
President of the FC Volunteer Leadership Team

On March 7th 2009, the Friendship Circle of Detroit held an all-night fundraiser event for their Volunteers. The event, called a "WAKE-A-THON", was arranged by the Presidents Club and was a huge success. The "WAKE-A-THON" encourages volunteers to raise money for the FC by staying up, and doing really cool activities, all night!

Before the WAKE-A-THON, every volunteer was put on a team and was bombarded by their team's captain with friendly reminders to get them to come and join in the fun. The night of the WAKE-A-THON all of the volunteers came decked out in their team's color for an unforgettable night! Throughout the night there were tons of activities like karaoke, tye-dyeing, t-shirt decorating, team activities, as well as late-night scavenger hunts!

The Ferber-Kaufman Lifetown, where our Friendship Circle is based, was our main location. Lifetown was stocked with food, fun, and more!! Delicious treats filled the building to help keep us volunteers awake! Like many of the volunteers, I hadn't ever truly stayed up the whole night, so when free time came I tried to take a quick nap. But each of those naps was quickly stopped by loud cheering reminding us that we were STAYING UP ALLLLLLL NIGHT!

When it was time to go to our late night scavenger hunt (at like 3 in the morning!!) at Meijers [YAY 24 HOUR STORES!!] I was basically sleeping with my eyes open. As I walked into the FC lobby to be taken to Meijers, Bassie Shemtov, the Friendship Circle Founder, saw me and asked me "how I was doing and if I was tired". I debated in my sleepy head how to best answer the question, and then bluntly said "I am loving it, but am waaayyy too tired to enjoy everything". She then posed this question, "What wouldn't you do for your special friend?" It took me no time at all to answer that, cuz' there isn't one thing I wouldn't do for my special friend! So for the next few hours I kept my self going, cuz' what wouldn't I do to make FC stronger and more amazing for my special friend?!?! And so I ask you this:

"Is there anything YOU wouldn't do, for your SPECIAL FRIEND?"

To find out more about how to start this or other awesome programs in your FC branch contact us, the FC Volunteer Leadership Team, we're here to help you!