Friends All Around 2026: Moments to Movements was a hit -- thanks to you!

In the movie business, the studios refer to certain releases as “tentpoles” – big-budget, can’t-miss blockbusters that carry the rest of their slate of movies for the year. Well, Friends All Around is our tentpole blockbuster, which helps keep our 450+ programs aloft in the coming year. (To put it in movie terms, it’s our Project Hail Mary -- only we did it without the star power of Ryan Gosling).

We spent April 19, 2026, with nearly 600 of our best friends, and it was so much fun to see them all together in one place, celebrating 20 years of The Friendship Circle. To everyone who gave their time, money, energy, skills, and every other kind of support: we thank you so much. Friends All Around 2026: Moments to Movements raised an amazing $580,000 — ensuring that The Friendship Circle continues to thrive, grow, and evolve to meet our members' needs, and build upon our shared values of inclusion and friendship.

There were so many individual highlights, from Rivkee and Rabbi Mordy’s heartfelt looks back on 20 years of The Friendship Circle, to Ken Rice’s wry references to the NFL draft, to Bunny Bakes’ serving up sweetness in all its forms (especially the Milkshake Station).

It was also abundantly clear that our mission has been taken to heart by the current generation of Friendship Circle grads. As our Princeton-bound senior and featured speaker, Kofi Opoku-Dakwa, put it: “The real magic wasn't in the activities, but in the passion for inclusion."

Our theme, “Moments to Movements,” was chosen for a reason – The Friendship Circle’s impact on Pittsburgh and beyond becomes clear with each passing year. As longtime Friendship Circle parent Edna Neivert explained to the crowd, finding a place that included her daughter Alia so easily opened up new worlds of possibilities for her.

“One of our first experiences with Friendship Circle was when Alia was 5 or 6 years old,” said Neivert. “She joined a group that had choreographed a dance to an original song. They performed their dance as part of a bigger show in Oakland, at Bellefield Hall. To be honest, I was very nervous. My daughter uses a wheelchair, and I did not know how they were going to be able to include her. I had never seen someone who uses a wheelchair in a show. But they didn’t see any obstacles. They worked it out quickly, and Alia was on the stage, part of the show. I sat in the audience, amazed at how natural it all looked. And I was so proud of my daughter and this group of amazing people who had so eagerly invited her to join them. She had a blast!”

“As we left, people in the audience came over to congratulate her. We continued to meet people who had been at the show even months later. They remembered her and wanted to introduce themselves and say hello. The social barriers that usually exist were gone. They had melted away.”

Thanks again to all of our sponsors at every level, our board, our staff, and all of our friends who made this event – and this past year – a success.