The Cottage Gift House Newsletter
The 2010 Long Island Buddy Walk for Down Syndrome:
The Cottage Gift House is a proud contributor to many local charities and events and we work with many school PTA's, church groups and organizations with their fund raising efforts. There is one organization in particular that is near and dear to our heart. It is the Down Syndrome Advocacy Foundation. We have a grandson who has Trisomy21, or commonly called Down syndrome, and up until the time he was born we, like most people did not know that much about DS. We were devastated when he was born not just because he had DS but because he had so many medical problems and his prognosis for survival was touch and go for awhile. We began to learn as much as we could about DS and reached out to others who also had children or grandchildren with DS. We learned about the Down Syndrome Advocacy Foundation and Alexander's Angels, a Down syndrome support group, and decided that we wanted to help raise funds for them to promote more research, education, and advocacy programs for children and adults with Down syndrome.To this end, Long Island will be having it's 4th Annual Buddy Walk for Down Syndrome at Heckscher State Park on Sunday, October 24, 2010 from 10:30am to 3:00pm. The Long Island Buddy Walk was started here by Alexander's Angels Org. Visit their website at http://www.alexandersangels.org for more information about how you can help.Perhaps if I share with you a little about my grandson Ryan it will help you to understand not just what we have gone through but what thousands of other families have gone through. I, along with other families of children with DS are not looking for sympathy or pity. We see our children as "Special Gifts" from God who need a little more love, caring, help in learning the everyday things we take for granted, who need special programs and services to help them achieve their maximum potential as respected members of the community. It is because of the generosity of so many people that our children are receiving the benefits of more early intervention programs and services. I hope you take the time to read about Ryan and hope that you will consider helping us in our cause.Thank you.
June 19, 2010 at 07:52 AM