New York City Take Two

image
Harrison’s friend Grace enjoying the spotlight.

New York is an amazing city. So to gather in Times Square to see a video of children all over the county who live with Down Syndrome was magical.

I loved seeing all of the families and teams gathered. They would all participate in The Buddy Walk later in the afternoon. This experience has motivated me to not only be an advocate for autism. But to also advocate for all children with special needs.

It was incredible that at some times it was silent in Times Square. As we watched the pictures of the children flash across that huge screen. It was sense of togetherness that radiated through my soul.

When we arrived at Central Park, the momentum continued. Listening to the speakers and children sing the national anthem was touching. Everyone was friendly and enjoying the day.

Several times Harrison would tell me that he wished Sydney was with us. He had to be sure to pick out a souvenir from The Disney Store for her.

image

As I watched the teams start The Buddy Walk. I began to tear up. We were all gathered in unity to show our support for Down Syndrome. Nothing else mattered, but seeing the smiling faces and the joy on the faces of mothers, fathers, siblings and extended family.

It truly takes a village. Sometimes your village is made up of complete strangers. It days like Saturday that give me hope. That help me realize that there is still more work to do on behalf of the families living with special needs.

image

I’ve got work to do.

 

 


Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s