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Wednesday, December 27, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Circle of Friends kids find the reason for the season
By Jodi Schneider McNamee
Correspondent
The mission of Circle of Friends, a non-
profit mentoring program in Sisters, is to
provide friends/mentors to make sure Sisters’
most vulnerable kids develop life skills, social
skills, academic success, and their own indi-
vidual talents.
And last week 15 little friends had the
opportunity to express their holiday shop-
ping talents by searching for unique gifts
for their families, with gift certificates for
Habitat for Humanity Thrift Store donated by
ZoselHarper Realtors.
This was the third year that ZoselHarper
Realtors sponsored the holiday gift certifi-
cates for Circle of Friends children. After
each sale, ZoselHarper Realtors donate to any
one of five nonprofit organizations, and one
of the nonprofits is Circle of Friends.
As the kids shopped they learned it
isn’t always easy to find the perfect gift,
quickly.
But help from their mentors made it a
bit easier. Mentor Diane Cooper helped her
friend Eva shop for a large family.
I enjoyed buying everything my family
should have for Christmas this year.
I have presents for my two sisters, my
brother, my mom, dad and grandma.
— Eva
“It took time to find the right gift for each
of Eva’s family members,” Cooper said.
With a wide selection of dolls, home
décor, jewelry, tools, games, puzzles, cloth-
ing and much more, the kids collected items
for grandparents, parents, siblings and even
the family pet.
“I think it’s really cool the fact that the
Habitat Thrift Store has
half off everything,”
Eva said. “It gave us all
more options. I enjoyed
buying everything my
family should have for
Christmas this year. I
have presents for my two
sisters, my brother, my
mom, dad and grandma.”
Nicky Merritt, Circle
of Friends executive
director since April, was
also on hand to help
wrap.
“All the kids and men-
tors that have done this in
the past couple of years
were super-excited to be
able to buy gifts for their
family again,” Merritt
told The Nugget. “I
haven’t experienced this
until now, and the antici-
pation for the holiday
shopping was so much
fun for these kids. They
PHOTO BY JODI SCHENIDER MCNAMEE
don’t have the oppor-
tunity to shop without Circle of Friends and ZoselHarper Realtors provided an opportunity for Sisters youths to do some
their parents; and with Christmas shopping for their family members.
this extra adult/mentor in
their life, it’s an experi-
ence they’ll always remember.
“Sisters is a unique community, and it’s
been wonderful to work with everyone who
gives so much for the kids,” Merritt added.
Carol Zosel, Realtor and Circle of Friends
board member, grew up in a big fam-
ily with six siblings and remembers what
a struggle it was to buy gifts for family
members.
“These mentors give three to five hours
of their time a week for their little friends.
And I think that anything we can do to help
support them and to give them an oppor-
tunity with their kids is worthwhile,”
Zosel said.
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