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Neighbors | Jessica Harker.Kindergarten teacher Candace Wright sat with Liam Levendosky March 21 as students watched a video for World Down Syndrome Day.
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Neighbors | Jessica Harker.Kindergarten students in Candance Wright's class at Robinwood Elementary watched a video sent to them by musical artist Jack Hartmann.
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Neighbors | Jessica Harker.Children's musical artist Jack Hartmann sent a video to Candace Wright's kindergarten class on March 21, saying hello to students with a special shout out to Liam Levendosky.
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Neighbors | Jessica Harker.Students in Candace Wright's kindergarten class at Robinwood Elementary watched a video about students with Down Syndrome in celebration of World Down Syndrome Day on March 21.
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Neighbors | Jessica Harker.Doug (left) and Connor Levendosky (front) posed with kindergarten teacher Candace Wright, Liam Levendosky and Rebecca Levendosky (right) after Wright presented the Levendoskys with a $770 check donated by the school for their Buddy Walk later this year.
By JESSICA HARKER
Robinwood Elementary School celebrated World Down Syndrome day on March 21.
Students in Candace Wright’s kindergarten class hosted a special celebration for their classmate Liam Levendosky, the first student with down syndrome to attend Robinwood.
“If you could have seen how my class was with him this year. They love him, and he loves them back, it goes both ways,” Wright said. “When I saw that happening I just knew I wanted to celebrate that.”
Wright organized the events for the day, raising money for weeks before hand to donate to the Levendosky’s Buddy Walk team.
The Buddy Walk is an annual walk that raises money and brings awareness to down syndrome, and will take place on Sept. 22 this year.
“We have done the buddy walk every year we could since 2013,” said Doug Levendosky, Liam’s father. “We didn’t know anything about this so we really wanted to be included and find out information as we have gone along.”
Doug said that the family has been involved since the first year they could, but never focus’ on raising tons of money for their team.
“We are never the type to ask for stuff,” Doug said. “So when she brought it up at our last parent teacher conference we were blown away, as soon as she told us about it, it was like Christmas for us.”
Wright said she had the idea to do a big celebration for World Down Syndrome Day after getting to know Liam.
“He just touched my heart and I just wanted to do everything I could to make everyone aware and understand what down syndrome is,” Wright said.
To raise money for the walk Wright sold T-shirts and took donations.
On March 21, students were also able to pay a dollar to wear crazy socks, the proceeds from which were also donated to the walk.
In total, the school raised $770 for the Levendosky’s family team.
“I had asked them if there is something they wanted to donate money to, and they said it was just us and the buddy walk. So we just raised what ever we could,” Wright said. “Now a bunch of our staff members want to join their team as well.”
Along with raising money, Wright organized a viewing of a video about down syndrome for every class in Robinwood.
“The biggest thing is this video that is going on,” Wright said. “I really wanted everyone to understand what down syndrome is. Today kids need to learn that everyone is different but we are all the same really. We all want to make friends, be accepted and respected.”
As a special surprise to the class and to Liam, Wright was also able to organize a video of children’s music artist Jack Hartmann greeting the class.
“My class is a huge fan of Jack Hartmann, so to have him say yes and send us a video saying hello was huge for them,” Wright said.
Along with the video, Hartmann sent a signed CD of his music for Liam to the school.
“I just think a lot of people don’t know what down syndrome is and once you give them that knowledge they can really embrace it and accept it,” Wright said. “I mean there is so much negativity in the world and when you see something positive you really want to embrace it and celebrate it.”