13. Buddy Plan

The next time I’m meeting with Friendship Circle, were going to bus out to the library, like a little field trip. So they told us in advance to start thinking about which buddies we plan to stay with majority of the time. That way the kids have extra focus and care towards them. I thought that I would take Devin. She is real exciting, and we had a lot of fun making the pizza together. I was sure we would entertain each other at the library. I wanted to find some fun books to read to her.

12. Eating

The moment I’ve been waiting for was to finally eat with everyone. It was like a celebration when we all pulled out a plastic chair and sat down on the table. The leaders were in charge or cutting the pizza and some of the kids helped pass out the napkins. Everyone looked really happy, just as happy as being in the nature. Although it was weird because some of the kids didn’t want to eat, so I felt like they were not able to share the taste of their own creations. Its sad sometimes not seeing everyone together, when we are a group.

11. Devin

Devin was my buddy for pizza day. Since I brought the sauce we were in charge of putting it on the pizza and mixing it around. I feel that today Devin and I were part of an assembly line and it was cool to feel like she contributed and I helped. Not to mention that she is really awesome, she is really hyper and jumpy and she does talk a lot. But they are all funny things that she does, and they make me laugh each time. So it was great to bond with her. Which is what Friendship Circle is all about, getting to help good people become great and feeling fun.

10. Pizza Day

Finally we get to make some delicious food! Today is Pizza Day, so we didn’t bring in a lunch. But all the leaders brought in some ingredient to make pizza, for example i bought the sauce and and the plates. I, out of all people, was really excited because I love to eat. So we started to make the food, and it was really difficult at first because we want to be on the same page as the kids. We wanted them to be able to contribute, have fun and most importantly be safe. My biggest worry was that they were going to burn them selves. The leaders how ever were in charge of the oven and cutting. While the kids got to put every thing together, decorate the pizza. But we all got cleanup and eat!

9. Holding Hands

One feature of the Nature Hike is gathering around the trees and holding hands. At this time we would all be silent and listen to the noises of the forrest. Then we would all go around in the circle and tell everyone what we heard from that moment of silence. A lot of the kids said they heard the cars honking and driving by each other. Which I thought was kind of funny for its irony. But I heard the something in the bushes. Its was weird for me to know what other people were thinking about simple things. To put that much effort and focus into just listening.

8. Sam

Sam is 21 and the oldest Autistic child of the bunch, at first I couldn't tell if he was or not because he was so quiet. Later I found out that unfortunately he was one of the kids who weren’t able to talk at all. However he can understand everything your saying really well. Today when we went to on the Nature Hike, all his expressions bursted out of him! He was so happy to go out, because it doesn’t happen that often. Especially a nice sunny day in San Francisco. His appreciation about simply things in life was really fun to watch. Because some people miss the value of basic things and how it can mean a whole lot to someone, like Sam.

7. Nature Hike

Recently this year Friendship Circle started a new activity where we, not only do we play indoors with the kids but we take them on Nature Hikes and some day we’ll bring our lunches out and have a picnic around the trees. The kids are used to a routine, so its easy for the kids to get comfortable with. But the first few times taking the kids out, they were not used to it. So when they first get out, they get really excited to frolic in the grass on a nice day. All the kids were super excited and super happy to be free and be kids. Even the older kids, Sam who is 21 this year, enjoyed the nature!

6. Take a Walk

A lot of people have already been working with Friendship Circle and just continuing their work. However there was a lot new people, like me, so today as one of our first days gathering with each other we just wanted to ease in to it. So today were going on a walk around the city, near Golden Gate Park. Once we start to enter the forrest, there is a large tree that we gather around and say one thing we are happy about today. Most of the new kids, were just happy to be there and volunteer their time.

5. Ben

Ben is one of the kids I buddied up with today. He was the first kid I got to know, and a really adorable one! He was just so kind and extremely smart especially with math. We gave him any random number, like 6984 multiplied by 15, he would come up with the answer in seconds. This one leader made a word problem for him and he solved in seconds, while the other leaders and I were even clear on the question! Today was just a get-know-you type day and we got sing songs to help memorize each other’s names. After we all sit with our buddies and eat the lunches we bring. Then we all help each other clean up, and sing a song about it. What’s really cool is that a lot of the kids are able to sing it in Hebrew. Im glad I got to hang out with Ben today, he is easy and wonderful to work with and really gifted child.

4. Names

I finally get to meet the kids. I bused over to San Francisco, walked in with my blue Friendship Circle shirt and met the kids. We sat in a circle, put our lunches down and waited for everyone else to arrive. As I started to see the kids and the leaders walk in, it was getting hard to tell who was Autistic or not, the only difference was that the leaders had on their blue shirts. Everyone had arrived and we said our names and ages in a circle. Throughout the day we just got to know each other and sing songs.

3. The Leaders

All the leaders were really nice to one another and very helpful. I was expecting a lot of the leaders to be my age, but only a few of them were. A good chunk of them were in middle school. I thought it was good to see that all people can volunteer, and its great that those kids were able to start off young, rather than waiting till they were older. But this was also good for the program because they would get to work with kids around their age. Some of the children were as young as 6 or 8 and as old as 18.
So depending on your age, it would be easiest to match a buddy up that way.

2. Training Day

Today was my first day to work with Friendship Circle. Except we were not working with the kids just yet, we were in training. There was a ton of things i did not expect to find out. First we watched a few videos on Autism and how you might not even to be able to distinguish amongst people if they even have the disorder. Next they explained to us how the children might act. The examples were really extreme, and I didn’t even think the children would get to those levels. One child might be hyperactive, one may not even talk much at all and unfortunately there are some who cant. After we were given situations with the child, usually with a problem and were to act out what we would do to solve it. For example if there was a kid who was throwing toys, a good solution was to calm them down by talking through to them and help them put all the toys away. It was a little scary, but theres a lot of other leaders to help you and a therapist for the children for support.

1. Picking My Project

Deciding what I wanted to do for Senior Project was easy. I knew that I wanted to work with special needs people. However I didn't know that I'd be working with children. I thought that would be a stretch because the only kids I involved myself with was my family. So it would be interesting to interact with other children. Friendship Circle would be the perfect place! Its a program that provides care to Autistic children. On Sundays you volunteer your time with them. Such as helping them how to read, taking them to parks, zoos, libraries, cook little pastries, sing songs, hangout and be their buddies.