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Dear Friends of Friendship Circle,
We are writing to share an important update about our beloved Friendship Circle program.
After five years of extraordinary leadership, Friendship Circle Program Director Sandy Andresen will be retiring effective June 30, 2026. Sandy came to us with this decision, and while we will miss her enormously, we respect and fully support her choice. She stepped into this role at a pivotal moment and gave it everything — guiding the program through COVID and its aftershocks, preserving the core programming that has made Friendship Circle meaningful to so many people for 40 years, and caring deeply for every member of this community along the way. We are profoundly grateful for her service and wish her all the best in this well-deserved next chapter.
Friendship Circle is not going anywhere. This program has the full backing and support of the JCC SoCo Board of Directors, and we are committed to ensuring it continues to thrive. We are currently redesigning the program's staffing structure to build a more sustainable and layered model of support — one that will serve this community for the next 40 years, not just the next few. We are already building toward that future, with an active search for a Program Coordinator currently underway.
In the meantime, JCC SoCo Executive Director Heather Muntzer is directly overseeing the program. We have prepared answers to questions we anticipate you may have, which you'll find below.

With deep gratitude,
Heather Muntzer, Executive Director 
Deborah Burg-Schnirman, Board President
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