Friendship Circle Team to Run NYC Marathon

After a successful debut in the ING NYC Marathon last year, Team Friendship will run again this Sunday, November 6 to benefit Friendship Circle International, a non-profit organization that pairs children with special needs with teenagers to form mutually beneficial relationships.

“It’s not about selfish things or about physical appearance,” explains Dana Ginsburg, a corporate communications consultant and a member of the ten-person team, from Potomac, MD.

“It’s about a commitment to raising money for a special organization through the marathon, that is our inspiration.” To participate in Team Friendship, Ginsburg raised more than $3,500, the minimum amount required to join the team.

In recent years, growing rosters of charities and causes have formed teams of runners in the NYC Marathon, which will draw 45,000 runners. In last year’s charity program, $30 million was raised. So after the first Friendship Team raised $17,500 in 2010, team coordinator Rabbi Mendel Groner decided to increase the goal to $55,000 this year. And so far, Team Friendship has delivered; in addition to the minimum funds raised by each member in order to meet the requirements to participate in Team Friendship, some runners have taken initiative and have already collected above and beyond the $3,500 minimum.

Ron Ferber from West Bloomfield, MI is well on his way to raising $26,200 for his run for friendship. Ferber, a founding supporter of the Ferber Kaufman Lifetown Building reached out to members of the community to sponsor a mile for $1,000.

“Having been involved in Friendship Circle for a very long time, I’m very happy to run for this organization in the Friendship Circle team,” he says.

Running a marathon is an extraordinary way to raise awareness about the innovative programs Friendship Circle provides for special needs children, explains Groner. Other awareness programs are effective as well, but “running is very time consuming, it’s a serious commitment to five months of training for the marathon,” he says. Going from sedentary behavior to an active lifestyle is implicit in any marathon, and Friendship Circle is designed to signal that message too by stimulating active awareness about special needs children.

Down the road, Friendship Circle hopes to eliminate stereotypes about special needs and to educate teens to accept special needs children for who they are.

An Orthodox Jew, Ginsburg proudly adheres to the Halachic standards of modesty even while exercising.

“Living in a community where you are the only person running in leggings and a skirt, and everyone else in your club wears tank tops and shorts, can be challenging,” she admits. But she’s breaking down stereotypes about running, too: Ginsburg notes that some people perceive running as a contradiction with an Orthodox Jewish way of life.

She is careful not to compromise her standards, and instead she injects her personal taste into her exercise gear, like a skirt she recently found online dubbed the “kosher style skirt” by The New York Times. For her, and for countless children and teens who are be impacted by Friendship Circle, Sunday’s race will be for friendship and acceptance of all people.