After two years of virtual galas, it was so exciting to see everyone in person at Friendship Circle’s 17th Annual Heroes Gala. On Thursday May 12th, sponsors, supporters and friends all joined together at the King St Ballroom at Embassy Suites in downtown Seattle to celebrate love, inclusion, and friendship. Each of you listened to the personal stories of our honorees, families, children, and teens with special needs, and teen heroes, and were inspired to make a momentous difference. Because of your generosity, together, we raised over $500,000! We offer heartfelt thanks to everyone involved in making the 17th Annual Friendship Circle Heroes Gala a huge success! Your passion and commitment helped the Friendship Circle strengthen our seamless circle of love, inclusion, and friendship. Special thanks to our amazing Gala Chairs, Rob and Lisi Wolf, our amazing Gala Committee to our esteemed honorees Stan and Iantha Sidell and Bruce Mezistrano and our hundreds of committed Teen Heroes - THANK YOU for your ongoing love and dedication to your special friends - you are our BACKBONE! Thank you Matt Lorch for being an incredible MC and auctioneer. Thank you to our Teen Heroes, Ethan Bensussen, Andrew Howison, Sasha Nelson, Lily Podolsky, Max Rubenstein and Mila Shulman. Thank you to our incredible buddies William Acker and Angie Ivanov. Thank you to Effie, Casey and Ford Parks, Rachael and Lily Podolsky, and Gail Lee for lighting up our world. To all our supporters, sponsors and friends - you allow us to include even more friends with special needs into our circle and give us the opportunity to continue to blossom and grow year after year. Your dollars will be put directly to work. Thank you!