An effort to promote friendship between young people who may not otherwise have a chance to meet will culminate Saturday at the 30th edition of the Western Springs Circle of Friendship Party.

“I took it over from somebody else in the community,” Charlotte Wegrzyn, director of the event for the last five years, said in a telephone interview. “It’s always handled by a parent with kids in the elementary schools.”

This year’s party for grade school-aged kids will be from 12:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Lyons Township High School’s South Campus in the Corral Activity Center.

The event brings together 85 La Grange area students — most from Western Springs District 101— and 85 students from the Off the Street Club in Chicago will pair up to enjoy activities such as an obstacle course, face painting and grooving to music from a DJ.

Volunteers ranging from junior high students to adults will be there to make sure that each buddy pair is taken care of and the event is operated in the safest way.

“The junior high kids can kind of help the younger kids and help them navigate the party and get to know their new friend,” Wegrzyn said. “It’s kind of an all ages event whether you’re participating or helping. It brings together two communities that would otherwise not meet.”

Wegrzyn said the Off The Street Club, 25 N. Karlov Ave., on the west side of Chicago’s Garfield Park neighborhood, is “Chicago’s oldest Boys and Girls Club that is out there.”

“Their kids don’t have opportunities like ours do,” she said. “It’s giving these kids an opportunity to have an afternoon in a safe environment that’s fun while meeting new kids and introducing them to a little bit of diversity.”

The Chicago club is a nonprofit youth center “offering children in Garfield Park a safe place to laugh, dream, and reach their full potential,” according to its website.

The Circle of Friendship party began in 1996 when several families from Western Springs paired their 10 grade school children from Laidlaw Elementary with 10 from the OTSC to enjoy an afternoon of bowling and pizza. The first few minutes were awkward, but they soon loosened up and had fun.

Participants gather for a game during the 2022 Circle of Friendship Party in Western Springs. The event’s 30th anniversary party is Saturday at Lyons Township South Campus. (Steve Johnston / Pioneer Press)

Encouraged by the first party, the volunteers determined to make it an annual event.

One of the original founders of the event, and a board member at the OTSC, is Western Springs resident Patti Winegar.

“This is our 30th anniversary, so this is a great time to talk about the party,” she said.

Winegar also noted that this was the 125th anniversary of the Boys and Girls Club in Chicago, pointing out that the club was funded entirely by private sources.

“I was working at a big (advertising) agency downtown and we were very involved running the annual holiday luncheon, which is their biggest fundraiser,” she said. “That’s how I got involved. It takes the whole agency working on this luncheon to raise funds for programs. I was just amazed at what these kids had. They had a great gym, they had adult guidance for values, they had tutoring available and eventually computers; but also places to play and have fun and arts and crafts and reading rooms.

“The idea was to get kids off the street and give them a place to be a kid and learn the values to grow into great adults.”

OTSC also has a summer camp in Wheaton, where Winegar said kids can experience “the outdoors and camping and horses and bicycles and hearing crickets at night,” she said.

Hank Beckman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press. 

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/16/western-springs-circle-of-friendship/