My Dear Friends,
Many are aware that my life changed in 1999 with the birth of my son, Noah. He has been a blessing of all blessings in my family. He has forever changed the way we see everything in our daily lives. See, Noah was born with Down syndrome and my family, instead of asking why, we simply celebrated! Noah, with his unbelievable innocence, has opened our eyes and hearts to more than we could have ever imagined.
Unfortunately, our society, all aspects of it, see Down syndrome as an imperfection and must be eliminated by the medical community or thrown by the wayside by the educational, healthcare and even the various levels of government.
My family helped to start a non-profit organization known as F.R.I.E.N.D.S., which stands for Family Resource Information Education Network for Down syndrome. Our group has a mission to raise awareness, educate the educator, inform the medical community and engage the various levels of government in a effort to protect and defend all individuals with Down syndrome.
Each year F.R.I.E.N.D.S. hosts its annual Buddy Walk; a walk that raises awareness and engages the community in everyway possible. This is a major fund raiser for us and 100% of the monies raised is used to support families with children or adults with Down syndrome, fund awareness campaigns throughout the year, host conferences for the educators and medical professionals, to inform them of as many statistics and information and to offer techniques that will help them to provide better services for all individuals with Down syndrome. And I have to say, it has been working in a very large way!
Noah is in the inclusion program in the Frederick county school system and with all of the work that F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and my family has done over the past few years, FCPS has become a role model for the state of Maryland. Efforts like this takes time and money, and we have offered both and the fruits have been incredible!
So…what I am asking from you as a friend is to help us keep the momentum going and make a pledge of any amount, small or large, to our Buddy Walk this year. It will be held September 19th at Baker Park in Frederick, Maryland. This site is very secure and extremely easy to use. Like I said, any amount will help in many ways.
Thank you so much!
Denny
Denny, Vonda, Peyton, Sophie, Noah and Halle Weikert