Jim McIntosh

Buddy Walk 2008: our first in Indianapolis

We look forward to this day each year and this was our first Buddy Walk in Indiana. Mostly we look forward to the family bonding time. In Salt Lake we were used to a small get together in a local park with around 300 people. And to be completely honest, getting the new tee shirt (or pajama top) each year was just about the high light. As a game we would often guess what color the T-shirts we were going be. We did enjoy seeing familiar friends and helping to support the community, but we really don’t set out to network at those events. The event is sort of private to our family.

Well, the Buddy Walk in Indianapolis is a much, much bigger deal. Check out the pictures and you can see. I don’t know exactly how many people there were but it had to be more than 1200. There were celebrities like Chris Burke, best known for his role as “Corky” on the TV series, “Life Goes On”, and the president of the national Down Syndrome Society in attendance. There were all kinds of activities, music and games. Additionally, this event raises much more money than we were used to, a good thing of course.

The weather was unseasonably warm with the temperature around 80 degrees. This was a drastic difference from last years event where the McIntosh’s got all bundled up to walk in sleet and rain. Kids were rapped in blankets and drinking hot chocolate.

After applying our sun screen we were off to walk along the river walk in down town Indianapolis. The official rout was a little short of 4 miles but we cut this short. Ellie did the most walking but she and Mia took turns riding in the stroller. We had a great time and most importantly we are all wearing our matching blue T-shirts.

The Indiana Down Syndrome Foundation did a great job and more importantly raised more than $125k. We are looking forward to next year already.