This month, I attended the Down Syndrome Affiliates in Action (DSAIA) leadership conference in Charlotte, N.C., with fellow board member and First Call Director Anna Fulbright. It was an amazing experience of networking and learning from some of the best and brightest DS affiliate leaders in order to provide better service to Baltimore’s Down syndrome community.

In a DSAIA-fueled fervor, Anna and I created a World Down Syndrome Day (3/21) campaign for the Baltimore metropolitan area using the random acts of kindness idea. CDSPG will be delivering doughnuts to a more than 50 stakeholders and community partners around the region, including medical practitioners, offices of special education and local media providers.  The tasty gifts show our communitywide outreach efforts on this important day, which promotes acceptance and inclusion for everyone with Down syndrome.

Included with the doughnuts will be an infographic about Down syndrome and our local community, and encourages a two-way partnership between our organizations. Member families from all the counties in our region and Baltimore City have generously volunteered to deliver the doughnuts on the morning of 3/21. And we are thrilled that several local businesses have donated doughnuts for the initiative.  We will post more information on these outstanding businesses on our Web site closer to 3/21.

In addition to the organization’s efforts, we encourage our entire membership to participate in our 3/21 random acts of kindness initiative and take doughnuts (or another token of gratitude) to your workplace, child’s school or therapist, or community center, etc. You can print out the informational infographic to include with your gift on CDSPG’s Web site. Also, make sure to capture the moment and share pictures of your doughnut delivery on social media #321Baltimore. Let’s trend!

Thank you all so much for helping Baltimore’s Down syndrome community have a kind, generous and thankful World Down Syndrome Day! Looking forward to seeing how you make your mark.