All posts by Elijah and Crumpet

Elijah is 12 years old and lives in Brisbane, Australia together with his family. Crumpet is his monkey! They have a YouTube channel, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter accounts. Together they advocate to show the abilities and potential of people living with Down syndrome.
Uncategorized

October is Down Syndrome Awareness Month

Leave a comment

Did you know that October is the internationally recognised Down Syndrome Awareness Month?

It’s a month which is chosen so that everyone can channel their energy towards social media campaigns and projects to raise awareness of Down syndrome.

So what have Elijah and Crumpet been doing?

Library Collaborations

We are very pleased to be able to announce that we have secured a deal to produce Book Number 3, working in collaboration with Logan City Council Libraries and the First 5 Forever team. The First 5 Forever team are dedicated to promoting reading in the first 5 years of life. Elijah and Crumpet recently filmed a video about using the library, together with Marnie (pictured below) from First 5 Forever. Thomas (Elijah’s big bro, who is going to Film School next year) filmed and produced the video.

It was great fun filming and we are just putting the finishing touches to the video before it’s released.

The book we are creating is still a SECRET, but the storyline is written and Andy Marshall will commence the illustrations, once he has finished Super Scout in the next few weeks.

We have newspaper coverage ready to go and we expect further opportunities to arise from these collaborations.

2021 Childhood Summit

Elijah submitted an application video for the 2021 Childhood Summit which is being held in Logan this month. He was chosen to be a speaker, so we agreed that he would make a video on his chosen subject, seeing as that’s his strongest means of communication. He will be talking about imaginative playground design.

We have been busy practising Elijah’s speech and this weekend we completed the filming (funnily enough, meeting 2 other Elijahs in the playgrounds we visited – one of whom is appearing with his sister in our video!)

Super Scout Update

Elijah and Crumpet also filmed their Super Scout video this weekend (it’s been a busy weekend!), so we are all set to launch several crowdfunding campaigns once this video is edited.

Working with Scouts Queensland is great, but we need to fund the illustration costs, so seeing as we have experience of crowdfunding, we thought we should make the most of it. We gain a broader reach on each platform we list on, so it’s really a case of ‘the more, the merrier’! We will set the target amounts very low to ensure that we can collect whatever we raise.

Andy Marshall is nearing completion of the illustrations, so it’s been a lot faster than the time we took to publish Motivate Man. We have got the foreword ready (by Possum, Elijah’s Priestdale Scout Group Leader) and we are writing a letter to Bear Grylls, Chief Ambassador of World Scouting, asking him to write the foreword to our second Super Scout book (Possum beat him to the first book … sorry, Bear!)

Our fundraising page is all ready on our website, with pre-order copies starting to sell now at $20 for a signed, limited edition copy.

So that’s enough news for October! It’s quite busy, but it’s been fun and we are continuing to sell copies of Motivate Man both through our website and through online channels. Our half price second copy deal is proving to be a popular choice!

Happy Down Syndrome Awareness Month!

Uncategorized

Super Scout

Leave a comment

Time for another Blog post, now that we have released news about the second book we are working on: Elijah and Crumpet – Super Scout!

Scouts Queensland are currently trialing our first book, Motivate Man, as a fundraiser so that we can get the logistics of it right. We will then decide how we can use both Motivate Man and Super Scout around the Scout network in Queensland, then get the rest of the country interested!

We will be providing the books at cost price and Scout Groups will then be able to keep the profits they make. All of this comes under the Scout’s Sustainable Development Goal 10 on inclusion and diversity, so it’s a great collaboration. Here is Elijah’s introduction video about the book:

Tea with the Governor

I was invited to attend an afternoon tea at Government House in Brisbane to meet His Excellency the Governor, The Honourable Paul de Jersey and his wife, Mrs Kaye de Jersey. I joined a large group of Scouts (youths, Leaders and management) and found these events happen because the Governor is the Chief Scout of the Queensland Branch. So it was great to network with the various Scouting personnel and I was able to give Mrs de Jersey a ‘Motivate Man’ book, upon which she had someone bring a copy of her book, ‘Gavel finds his place’, which is about the Vice-Regal dog, also a kid’s book.

Book 3 – still a secret!

We have since made some more connections and hope to get some press coverage soon, to coincide with the book launch … or launches. Did I say that we have also started on book 3? We can’t say too much at the moment, but the script is done and we are just waiting on the green light before we start illustrating.

Illustrating the books LIVE!

So if you would like to follow the creation process of Super Scout, please come and visit Andy Marshal and me when Andy does his ‘Sketchy Live’ on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/c/AndyMarshallForkInTheRoad

You can message us questions and we are normally on from 9.30 for about an hour (depending on kids sleeping). We discuss options, add funny things, trouble shoot and discuss a wide range of topics. Plus you hear our news.

2021 Childhood Summit

Elijah recently applied to speak at the Childhood Summit taking place in Logan next month, producing a 2-minute presentation on video. Well, he nailed it and was chosen, so we are now doing a 10-minute presentation about Playgrounds and Imagination. Should be good. If you haven’t seen it, you can watch Elijah’s 2-min application here:

That’s all for now,

Stay safe, Rob and Elijah and Crumpet 🙂

Motivate Man

Going, Going, Gone!

Leave a comment

Well, what a month it’s been, launching our first book, Motivate Man! It was worth the wait and by the end of this month we will have distributed over 350 copies AROUND THE WORLD! The feedback we have had has been superb for a few reasons, which I will list later on.

First, though, if you haven’t had a chance to look yet, we have updated our website and you can now order your copy directly from us! Just click on the ORDER BOOK link HERE or in the menu later on. We love the book and everyone who has read it thinks it’s great too. That’s important for Andy (who illustrated it) and I – since it reinforces that what we thought (and hoped) would work actually turned out well!

Did you know … ?

Did you know that we have hidden an EASTER EGG in the book? Now, I’d better explain, as we did have some customers at the school book fair looking for a real Easter egg! An EASTER EGG is a term used by filmmakers, often animated films, and also game designers, to describe an object that they have inserted into the film or game. It’s usually an in-joke or an item that doesn’t belong or has relevance outside of the film. So we have one and it’s very hard to find. In fact, maybe we should run a competition to see who can spot it!

We realised that we hadn’t named our Siamese cat in the book. The cat appears on nearly every page, which was an idea we added in later, since it (I have to stop myself saying her name!) does love people and is always talking (when not sleeping). So we have her talking and sleeping throughout. That’s another investigation the kids can have (the answer is out there in social media!)

We have plans to create a newsletter and perhaps a Motivate Man Fan Club as well, so watch this space! It’s all designed to engage kids around the world with Elijah and also to encourage reading and develop skills and ways of thinking which can help them.

So what has the feedback been like?

Amazement – Elijah’s friends get quite a surprise when they see that he has his own book. Elijah IS ‘Motivate Man’ so they think that’s cool. With that his social standing gets a lift … not that he needs it as they are so supportive anyway, but it all helps.

‘Well done‘ – we pulled it off and created a decent book. The cover, the title, the theme and concept, the pictures and the rhyming storyline – it all came together really nicely to create a book which people are saying, “I love it!” about. The question always comes up in an author’s and illustrator’s mind, “Will readers like it?” and there is that fear of failure which we have to battle against. With it being considered good, we gain credibility with libraries and schools, so the book will reach more people around the world and have more of an impact.

Appreciation – those who have experience of writing, illustrating or publishing a book (either self-publishing like we did or going through a publisher) know what it takes. They appreciate the hard work and late nights, stress and obstacles which have to be overcome. It’s amazing to meet so many people who have already walked this path and the connections are continuing to be made.

Interest – in addition to the above, we are engaging with people who would like to produce their own book. They say it’s really motivating to see that WE DID IT! So we offer our advice and experiences or knowledge about how it was for us and encourage them to give it a go. It seems to be on a lot of bucket lists, so if we can help others to tick it off, that will be awesome.

Unspoken – we know we are making an impression, so we know that we don’t even need to hear feedback to know that we are making a difference. It’s the way someone says ‘Thank you’ to Elijah when he has written their name in the book they have just bought since they can see how he makes such an effort to write those letters. It’s the smile they give when they see Elijah showing his friends how Crumpet works. It’s the way something is said, like ‘Oh, you’ve got business cards too?!!‘ or ‘Can I have a sticker?‘ These are all moments which lend weight to what we are trying to achieve – recognition of the ability for Elijah and all people with Down syndrome to live a valued, successful and happy life when we surround them with the right love and support.

Supportive – everyone we talk to is so supportive. Supportive of the book (by buying a copy for themselves, or even 10, as some people have, to distribute themselves as gifts) and also supportive of Elijah and what it means for him. That support means a lot – Thank You!

Kickstarter Book

leap into the new year!

Leave a comment

After a longer than expected summer holiday, we are back! Today on this 29th February Leap Year day, it seemed like a good time to upload our first video of the year and say ‘Happy New Year’. We had tried to make an earlier video, but it was night time and too windy, so we decided to try again.

(Click this image and the video should open in a new page)

This summer has been very hot again and everyone around the world has seen the Australian bush fires, which we were luckily not impacted by. The school summer holidays ran until late Jan and it was quite nice having a break from the demands of social media. I only reposted the drawings from Andy Marshall (illustrator for Motivate Man, our upcoming kids book). You can follow him on Instagram @AndyCMarshall

Images from Andy Marshall’s Instagram account

The Kickstarter campaign ended in December with us nearly reaching $3,000 (Australian) which, when you take out printing and posting costs, pays for about half of the project costs, so that’s a big win. We learned a lot and it was fun, so we ticked a big box.

Andy was impacted by the fires and his other work, but he has been taking his time and doing a great job creating wonderful images for the book which I could not have imagined, so while I doubt we will have the book ready for 21st March, which is World Down Syndrome Awareness Day, that’s okay. We will end up with great first book.

The other fun thing I did over the break was to take part in my second podcast. I had done my first with Andy Marshall (you can find that interview here at Fork in the Road). Despite being a bit nervous as you feel like you don’t have the control of being able to edit out anything that isn’t perfect, unlike when creating films, it worked really well. I was then approached by Rich Bolus from The Dad Mindset, having been introduced by a mutual friend. I agreed to do a podcast with him and was really happy with the result. You can find that here. He also has a great interview with Maggie Dent, a well-known parenting author and educator, so I feel honoured to be able to contribute and feature alongside her!

(Click this image and the video should open in a new page)

So we haven’t been doing nothing, of course! Who could do nothing when you have work, 2 kids, a garden and house to look after? Elijah has started Year 5, which will be his first full year at his new school. As we mention on the video we have just produced, he has started learning Spanish, so I am learning it as well to help him. I’m quite enthused to be adding another language and to know that Elijah will end up being able to speak many words and phrases in both Spanish and Japanese.

When we did a Social Role Valorisation course with Darcy Elks many years ago, I wrote that I wanted Elijah to become a linguist. While that seemed like a bit of a dream wish at the time, it has become a reality, which couldn’t make me happier. On that note, I hope you have a great week and, as Elijah teaches Crumpet in this week’s video, I’ll say goodbye in Spanish – ‘Adios!’

Please feel free to leave a comment and I’d appreciate if you would pass on the details of this blog to anyone you think might enjoy or benefit from it. Thank you 🙂 All the best, Rob.

Kickstarter Book

MOTIVATE MAN IS Flying

Leave a comment

Yes, Elijah is flying! As we reach the halfway mark of our Kickstarter kids book project, ‘Motivate Man’, we have raised nearly $3,000! We now have 36 backers from around the world and 200 books going out.

We may also have a funding opportunity which will help us with our future projects, which is very exciting. Once we see how the sales progress on Amazon, we can then calculate what we might need for the next books in our series.

In other promotional activity, Elijah just answered some questions for an Instagram account, which will be published soon. It’s not a big account, but we all have to start somewhere and these collaborations are what helps us to grow. You have to persevere and keep chipping away at it. Then one day you realise you have grown to thousands of followers!

Did you know that we are now on Pinterest? Someone said that Pinterest was popular – so I am trying it out. Please look us up if you are on there.

Next, we just wrote another story for YOOCAN, which you can find on their website: https://yoocanfind.com/Story/1991/motivate-man-changing-perceptions

Finally, we have announced DOUBLE FREE book draw entries for every dollar you pledge, for the next 10 backers only (from backer #37 to #46). That means if you pledge $100 you will get 200 chances to win 25 FREE BOOKS (Motivate Man) for a school or library of your choice! So hurry on over – the link is at the top – click ‘KICKSTARTER’.

Have a great week! Best wishes, Rob

2021TheYearofDownSyndrome

It’s Cool to be Different

Leave a comment

Have you ever wondered what being cool means? If you have a teenager in the house and you are a parent, at least you probably know what ‘not cool’ is! In the absence of a dictionary – my definition is that being cool is when you do, have or are something that other people think is cool at that point in time.

So sometimes being different is cool, if it’s something that others aspire to do, have or be. Otherwise, if everyone is doing, having or being it … well, I guess there are lots of people being ‘different’, so there are lots of cool people. Until one minion declares that something else is important and then the cool-o-meter resets to zero.

In fashion, like art, you often see people who are different standing out. When there is something different or unusual about a person, it seems they have the edge. The society of the day deems what that thing is, but it’s the nature of fashion (and art) that there will always be those looking for the next trend, challenging the status quo and discarding the norms of the day. We love traditions but we have come to expect change. We embrace the new breakthrough trend and wonder why it took so long to be realised.

What’s the point? Well, a thought I have been having is about Down syndrome and the whole same/different discussion. You may know the hashtag #MoreAlikeThanDifferent – Do you push an agenda that your child is the same as everyone else, or do you shout out about the differences. Obviously, there’s a time an place for both, but I sometimes wonder.

At the start of the journey, when the world seems to be turned on its head with a Down syndrome diagnosis … Different … the advice is to just treat your beautiful baby as you would any other … Same. We expect other people to view our child as a child first … Same … with Down syndrome second … Different. For Inclusive Education, we expect our child to have access to regular schooling. Same. We expect the curriculum to be modified and appropriate adjustments to be made. Different. Workplaces create dubious reasoning to justify why they could not give someone employment, thinking they have to treat everyone the same to be fair. Same. We call that out knowing that there are many other benefits to employing someone with Down syndrome, including some different to the usual criteria. Different.

Standing out from the crowd can be a good thing. In business, having a point of difference can make your business a success. So if supporters value the difference and provide their custom, a person with Down syndrome can be successful. The more people who value that difference, who see it as a positive thing, even see the ‘overcoming the challenge’ as something cool, the more successful a person living with Down syndrome can become. People with Down syndrome and their families do have to work harder for the same things. Considering the state of the story book on Down syndrome we have inherited, certain countries are very lucky that the tide is turning. That’s in contrast to countries like Iceland and developing countries like China and many other countries around the world where the governments (and therefore many people) just don’t value people with Down syndrome the same way.

So the starting point is to change the story we are telling about what it means to have Down syndrome. We need to promote the similarities and yet sell the differences in a positive way. We can take advantage of uniqueness and transform it into something cool. We need to use social media, a very powerful game-changer putting power in the hands of the people, to change the inherited stories into our new uplifting ones. The fashion around Down syndrome is changing and rather than hiding behind closed doors, people around the world are proudly showing off their successes. The energy is shared and with all the newcomers you can feel the momentum is building.

It’s a different way of looking at it.

Now I think that’s cool.

Kickstarter Book

We Fired The Cannon!

Leave a comment

Dear Blog, Sorry for not posting for a while. I’ve been a wee bit busy! When I was explaining to Elijah about the campaign, talking about the launch, he said, “What, you’re going to put it in a cannon and fire it?” and laughed at his own joke – I love how he makes connections with words.

Well, it’s been quite a week, to say the least! After a weekend of preparation for the launch, including finishing off the video and tweaking the Kickstarter story page, we launched on Monday. Everything went as planned – except for only getting 4 hours of sleep. Then after dropping the kids off at school, I hit the ‘Launch Campaign’ button with a mixture of excitement and nervousness.

If you haven’t seen our hilarious (and serious) campaign video yet, click this image!

Before telling you how it went, 2 things: firstly, please follow our blog if you want to receive notifications about when a new blog appears; secondly, please sign up for our Email News-e-Letter at the top (benefits include entry into free book draws, communication tips, ideas, plans, secret stuff, the works!) We keep your email private, but you can always make up a new Gmail email just for this.

The lucky winner of the Launch prize draw was Instagramer @lonleavittbarker – congratulations! After our random draw (which I put on IG stories) we announced ‘lonl’ had won. I received permission to give the account name and it made my day to hear that her son’s school ‘can’t wait to have these books to share with and teach the children.’ Perfect! Well done! We now have a second draw for 25 books to go to a school when we hit $5,000. More about that on our email News-e-Letter.

Friends and family came to the party and soon the backer numbers and the amounts were rising. It was very exciting to see the funding go past 50% and I think we got to just over 60% by bedtime.

The next day saw us reach 100%, with a BIRTHDAY BANANA backer ($300) securing our initial goal of $1000. We had become a successful Kickstarter campaign. A little bit strategic as I set the initial goal low, but a win nonetheless for two reasons:

Firstly, we are now on record as having had a successful fundraising campaign on Kickstarter. That’s newsworthy – a positive news story – which I was quick to share with media organisations and social media. Anyone browsing Kickstarter will see the green funding bar, showing that we are fully funded, so that is like a tick of approval which may lead to more backers getting on board.

Secondly, once you hit your target, the money is secure. Had I put $10,000 on it and we had pledges worth $9,500, we would receive nothing and we would waste all that effort. Doing it this way we have the guarantee of receiving every dollar raised past $1,000. This was always a mission-based campaign, with the funds being used to accelerate the rollout of the planned book series. Otherwise we would just have to wait until we had sufficient online sales to do the next book.

As I write this we are sitting $3 shy of $1,500 – so that’s an average of $500 a day. Cost of books and postage comes to around $1000 for those pledges, so we have $500 contribution towards our illustration costs and stickers. At this stage, that makes me very happy, but I’m not resting on any banana leaf laurels, that’s for sure.

I distributed an A4 flyer with Elijah’s cards to his school, dentist, doctor, occupational therapist and Scouts. I had them printed on quality card, so they look the part. I think I will take it to some local libraries as well.

I am still waiting to hear about TV – staying positive that something will come through! Otherwise, if you know an organisation which could help promote, please let me know. I can email the above flyer (I will add one to the next News-e-Letter) so you can distribute if you wish to.

Well, that’s the blog task ticked off for today! On with the next 30 tasks! Luckily I have taken a week off work to concentrate on this campaign, as there has been such a lot to do. It’s just too hard to do it all in the spare time a normal week gives me at night.

If you think you would like to pledge an amount, either as a donation amount or to receive a reward of some sort (the first book pledge is $20, or 2 for $30, 5 for $50 and 15 for $100) please click here now so you don’t have another thing to remember to do! Have a great day and enjoy the weekend! Best wishes and thanks for your support! Rob

Uncategorized

The Power of Being Positive

1 Comment

If you are not listening to Podcasts, I recommend that you have a listen! I only jumped on to learn about writing a book, self-publishing and crowdfunding. I am amazed at how much I have listened to and how much I have learned. I feel like I am at university again, or learning my role at work – it’s a good feeling to be filling up a new part of my brain and learning some new skills!

Crumpet knows how to listen!

I listen on my hour-long trip to work and either listen at 1.5x speed or 2x speed, since most people on podcasts take their time. It means I cover twice as much ground 🙂 I also recommend skipping the first 3 mins usually as they are just introductions. So I found some very good channels and I have listened to about 100 hours now, condensed into 50 hours.

There’s a lot of experience out there and the interviews with successful crowdfunders all talk about preparation. They also talk about ‘going for it’ rather than waiting until you are sure that the project will be successful. You learn as you go and you sometimes have to just try it out. You may fail, but if you don’t try, you will never know and you will never learn. You have to be positive.

I tested the site with the Art project, but there was little interest. Rather than seeing this as a failure, I learned a lot. The nervousness about what will happen when I press the launch button – it’s no longer an issue! I know that I will be bombarded with people offering me all types of services which I don’t need, so I am prepared for that too. I know that you have to have a product that people really want, so I hope that our book, Motivate Man, will be attractive to many.

Friends and family, and supporters, are great – they give words of support as they are meant to! But unless that converts into orders from people not connected to me, the project will end up being much smaller than it otherwise could be. So I am working hard on growing a community who are interested in backing this and future projects. Kickstarter is not just about raising money – the project helps create interest in the cause, which is to raise awareness for Down syndrome and disability. So if we end up with a larger community, it will be a success.

I have started late on this, so the focus is to be creative and find ways to generate interest. Giveaway competitions, media leads, word of mouth, engaging on Facebook – these are all helping, but there’s not a lot of time left, as you can see from the countdown timer on the left! But it’s going to be fun and I am up for the challenge. With your support we can do this. That’s the power of positivity!

Please join our News-e-Letter for tips and additional info about the book – all those who are in the email group (which is kept private and confidential) when the Kickstarter launches will receive a link to our first (unpublished) book: Elijah and Crumpet – World Famous YouTubers, read by Elijah!

https://elijahandcrumpet.wordpress.com/contact/

Have a great week, all the best, Rob

Uncategorized

Finally on Facebook!

Leave a comment

Well, we did it! We jumped through the burning virtual hoops and worked out how to get a page for Elijah and Crumpet on Facebook. Here is the link:

https://www.facebook.com/ElijahandCrumpetBooks

Now I am burning up time checking out groups on there, but it’s an amazing platform, so I’m looking forward to seeing what happens in that space.

The history of why we were not already on Facebook is quite simple – when I first tried to open an account with Elijah, he was too young. Then I had two faces in the picture (one being Crumpet), so it was blocked as it went against the guidelines. So the name Elijah and Crumpet was taken … by me! But blocked!!

Last weekend I researched what I needed to do. I finally worked out that I had to open an account with my name, then make a page for Elijah and Crumpet, then I could create a closed group. So that is all now complete and we have 10 likes and a few members. Yay!

So please come on over if you are on Facebook – you get a free entry into the book draw if you join the group! I have already connected with people from all around the world on there and it’s very satisfying to be able to add an encouraging comment for someone in need.

Short one today as it’s late and I have to get on with the edit for our Kickstarter video. 16 days to go until we launch (don’t you love the countdown clock I added on the left! It’s a good motivator for me!)

Have a great day/night! 🙂 Rob

Uncategorized

So Many Amazing People

Leave a comment

Since we started our YouTube channel, I have connected with so many amazing people – some creators on YouTube, some people working in the field of advocacy or disability services, but mainly people with Down syndrome and their families. I wish we had started earlier, since before we put ourselves out there, there were many people doing just that, using social media to advocate and make more people aware.

Why didn’t we start earlier? 3 reasons, really:

Firstly, I didn’t know what I was doing and I didn’t have the time, or I didn’t think I had the time, to learn. I didn’t have Instagram or Twitter and up until a couple of years ago I wasn’t even set up with an account on YouTube! I had no reason to be on social media, I thought life was busy enough.

Secondly, we were absorbed by working with Elijah to give him a normal life. A fully inclusive education and regular activities. Life was busy and being an advocate seemed to be something that other people wanted to do. While we do have friends who have kids with Down syndrome whom we met early on, we were not going to group functions. Again, life seemed busy enough!

Thirdly, the fear of social media and putting Elijah ‘out there’ in the world – a world where trolls abounded and it would only be asking for trouble. Now I know, the reality is that there are hardly any trouble-makers and far more lovely people. So, if I knew back then what I know now, maybe we might have started sooner!

So I commented recently that of all the supportive comments from our 1000 YouTube and 4000 Instagram followers, I have only ever received one nasty comment. Their comment doesn’t deserve to be told – it wasn’t that bad, but was intended to annoy. So I sent a nice comment back thanking them for increasing our views, reported them and blocked them. Job done. It didn’t bother me and it was actually then a talking point about how I had my first negative comment! It was like I had been waiting too long and now I had earned my first Troll badge! I am confident with the processes that Instagram and others have in place, making it quite difficult for those trouble-makers to be annoying for long.

Back to the amazing people, though … so while we are aiming to inspire, educate and entertain, there are so many doing exactly the same, or some of these. I am blown away by the abilities of so many people with Down syndrome whom I have seen on their Instagram accounts – business owners, workers, dancers, models, actors, sportspeople, or just happy kids with their families. It’s great and this in itself does such a lot to advance positive understanding of the condition.

Before social media, we hardly saw people with Down syndrome. Sometimes a group of people on a day out with their care workers. Otherwise with so many being put into institutions in the bad old days, with short life expectancy, it was hardly surprising that there was something of a veil over what Down syndrome was.

I see that veil as having been lifted now and we are all using social media to do this very effectively. When you consider the small percentage still who are on it, things are going to go from good to great. It’s only a matter of time.

The other observation is the international nature of Down syndrome. This is something that I have touched on before. The condition goes across borders, just as being human does, but the bond between families around the world is so much stronger. While in an ideal world, just being human would serve as a strong bond, we kind of stuffed that up some time ago and are trying to make things good again. With Down syndrome, though, plus the connectivity of social media, we are living in the perfect age to work together for a better world future. There is a lot of work to be done, especially with developing countries like China and those in Africa, and especially in the face of genetic testing.

So, what can we do? Well, now is the time to start working on something for 2021 The Year of Down Syndrome. It’s not just for those with or close to Down syndrome, but for everyone. I’m always encouraged when I see people without Down syndrome advocating – like Madi from the Dallas Cowboys, who is putting out stories each day through October to raise awareness. We will be doing our video for her tomorrow, having been asked by Trista the Barista, a lady we met via Instagram (she’s a worker, hence the name, and a hip-hop dancer)(and she has Down syndrome). The more people who develop understanding, the faster society will repair the historical damage that exists. Great opportunities lie ahead!

Have a great day and thanks for following! If you haven’t, please click the follow button on the left and you can also sign up for my email News-e-Letter on the menu bar. Best wishes, Rob