... Karen Meredith Blott is one of these people.
I met this woman two years ago. She had three children at the time and had seen my business cards at a children's centre and called for haircuts. Lovely woman, engaging, energetic, kind, generous, beautiful and incredibly intelligent. I don't know what we talked about that first visit but I left feeling inspired.
She is one of those people.
Two years later their fourth child Conrad is born with Downs Syndrome and their world takes on a new and wonderful world.
In one year since Conrad was born, Karen has founded Circle 21 born out of the need for more resources and support for families and children with DS. Circle 21 focuses on health, education, employment, independent living, and peer-support-networks. While many organizations work hard at the local level to help people with DS, Circle 21 adds national and global resources, working with government, corporations, non-profits and others to coordinate significant, positive changes in the systems that support those with DS and their families.
On March 21, 2012 in Celebration of World Down Syndrome Day, Circle 21 holds their first ever event and it is wonderful. The room is filled with family and friends and there is lots of love and warmth. It is not like being at any other event. There is a young band playing, there are young adults with DS serving lovely appetizers and their artwork is part of a silent auction.
I am looking at the silent auction items when a beautiful picture of a bird catches my eye and I think of my mother-in-law and how much she would love this ... and then I notice Nicole, the artist who is standing their watching me, clearly proud of what she has accomplished. And so we chat and she tells me where she took the photo and about her life and it is all so very beautiful.
The rest of night was much like this, a night of empowerment not only for families and children with DS but for everyone who was there. My favorite words of the night was when Karen says "Conrad has taught me that a whole new world of perfect exists".
There are people and then there are people who change the world!
I met this woman two years ago. She had three children at the time and had seen my business cards at a children's centre and called for haircuts. Lovely woman, engaging, energetic, kind, generous, beautiful and incredibly intelligent. I don't know what we talked about that first visit but I left feeling inspired.
She is one of those people.
Two years later their fourth child Conrad is born with Downs Syndrome and their world takes on a new and wonderful world.
In one year since Conrad was born, Karen has founded Circle 21 born out of the need for more resources and support for families and children with DS. Circle 21 focuses on health, education, employment, independent living, and peer-support-networks. While many organizations work hard at the local level to help people with DS, Circle 21 adds national and global resources, working with government, corporations, non-profits and others to coordinate significant, positive changes in the systems that support those with DS and their families.
On March 21, 2012 in Celebration of World Down Syndrome Day, Circle 21 holds their first ever event and it is wonderful. The room is filled with family and friends and there is lots of love and warmth. It is not like being at any other event. There is a young band playing, there are young adults with DS serving lovely appetizers and their artwork is part of a silent auction.
I am looking at the silent auction items when a beautiful picture of a bird catches my eye and I think of my mother-in-law and how much she would love this ... and then I notice Nicole, the artist who is standing their watching me, clearly proud of what she has accomplished. And so we chat and she tells me where she took the photo and about her life and it is all so very beautiful.
The rest of night was much like this, a night of empowerment not only for families and children with DS but for everyone who was there. My favorite words of the night was when Karen says "Conrad has taught me that a whole new world of perfect exists".
There are people and then there are people who change the world!
