Smiles weren’t difficult to find Saturday afternoon at the Sammamish EX3 Teen Center.

Seventeen special needs children paired with 17 volunteers participated in the first-ever Special Arts Sammamish event, “Make it a Clay Day.”

“Through this program we can reach out to kids and families who on an everyday basis face trials and challenges that most of us can just vaguely imagine,” said Sammamish Arts Commissioner Lin Garretson.

This past weekend’s free function, which featured children of varying ages and disabilities, was the first of what the Arts Commission plans to make a quarterly gathering on the Plateau. “Au-Some Artists,” focused on children with autism is already planned for April — Autism Awareness month. Other events are scheduled for September and November.

Garretson said it was important for the Sammamish Arts Commission to make sure it included the entire community.

“These are people who have created thoughts and ideas but aren’t necessarily the ones who are going to a concert or an arts class,” she said. “When we can’t always express our feelings through words, that’s where art comes in.”

Marie Werbel, a mother of two vision impaired participants, was thrilled by the event. Sitting in the back of the room, she watched with pride as her son Eric, 14, and daughter Hannah, 16, molded clay with their hands.

“I think it’s a great opportunity to be able to meet people as friends, to be able to mentor kids who are younger than them and for people to not feel alone in their disability,” Werbel said.

The participants in Saturday’s event worked with Sammamish artist Betsy Matias on a hand-building clay project, while Seattle artist Trevor Johnson guided kids on two potters wheels. Johnson will donate more time when he takes the pieces back to his Seward Park studio to fire them. He will then return them to the kids, who will finish them with their mentors or parents.

“When they’re creating these things, to see it done, that’s the real joy,” Garretson said. “To see their faces light up and say, ‘I made that.'”

Mentor Robert Biegaj, left, works with Matthew Ahn on the potters wheel.

Athletes for Kids mentor Isla Dunbar, left, works with with Mia Ryan at Make it a Clay Day.

Mentor Emily Anne Owen, left, and Haley Philpot get a few laughs while trying to use the potters wheel at Make it a Clay Day.

Rose Pitney, left, shapes a head out of clay with her mentor Emma Kleinknecht.