Downs, The History of a Disability

The DSAH is very proud to be involved with the launch of the book Downs, The History of a Disability, at My Dog Joe’s Cafe in Westdale.

Written by Dr. David Wright of McGill University, Downs traces the history of the syndrome we know so well from it’s original assessment by a Doctor and avid amateur photographer, to it’s current levels of acceptance in society and the community.

Dr. Wright has written a fascinating account (you may recall I sent around a notice regarding the story on CBC’s Quirks and Quarks radio show a few months back – here is the link in case you missed it – you have to scroll down a ways to find it), and it promises to be a fun evening.

The launch is on Tuesday March 13th from 7:30 to 9:30, although by no means do you need to stay for the whole thing.  The formal portion of the evening will start at around 8:00.

The good news is that Dr. Wright is an engaging and interesting person that you will get to meet, and ask him about his research.  The further good news is that My Dog Joe has arguably the best coffee and baked treats of any coffee shop in Hamilton.  There is no bad news.

Just so the Cafe can staff up appropriately, can you drop us a quick line to contactus@dsah.ca to let us know if you’ll be coming?  We do hope to see as many people as possible there, and show our support for Dr. Wright’s important work.

Finally, there will be copies of the book available for purchase at the event, but if you plan to pick one up in advance, I would (on a personal note) encourage you to do so at one of Hamilton’s independent book stores, Bryan Prince or Epic Books.

Thanks, and we hope to see you there.

STAR Article about Prenatal Testing of Down Syndrome

A thoughtful and well written article in the Star today.  Should prompt some good discussion.  Please share and repost.

The issue of prenatal testing is complex and important.  Glad to hear it’s getting a thoughtful airing.

Busy Winter, Busy Spring

Just a quick update on the goings on with DSAH.  We have announced the date and location of our Golf Tournament (Century Pines on June 22nd), and the Cooking Club is underway for our older kids, and we are gearing up for a great event at the end of this month.

Last Thursday we welcomed Michael LeClair from the Monarch School that was in Burlington several years ago.  He described the ups and downs of running a program with amazing results, and high expectations to boot.  Monarch is no more, and while there has been much thinking with the DSAH and DADS groups about the desire to run such a program in Hamilton, what we need more than the money at this point is a strong volunteer base.

Did you child participate in the Fun Club.  Is he or she part of the Cooking Club?  If you would like to see more regular, and frequent programming like that, think of how you might be able to contribute, for instance by finding golfers for our golf tournament,  shopping for toys for the Christmas party or even flipping burgers at the Barbeque; and drop us a line.  Many hands make light work, as they say, so don’t be shy.

Together, we can build a strong organization and can continue to do the great work of Celebrating our Kids, Educating them and the community at large and Advocating for a more fair place for them in society.

The last year has been amazing, and with ‘Celebrate, Educate, Advocate’ as a fresh way of seeing our work, I can’t wait to see what this year brings.