The Buddy Walk was developed by the National Down Syndrome Society in 1995 to promote awareness and inclusion for people with Down syndrome and to raise money for research and education programs. Last year, over $2.5 million was raised nation-wide for the Down syndrome community. The South Shore Buddy Walk is run solely by parents of children with Down syndrome. Our goal is provide the best quality of life for our children and we are working to meet this goal by increasing awareness and acceptance- starting inside our homes and out into our communities.

This is the South Shore Buddy Walk’s sixth year and we are expecting over three hundred participants to help us raise awareness for Down syndrome in our community as well as surrounding communities in Massachusetts. The past five years have been very successful and with every year comes more participants and new activities. It is a great day for everyone to learn new things, meet new friends and simply enjoy the festivities. People with Down syndrome, families and friends will walk a one-mile course and then meet back at the park for food, fun and music.

This year the walk will be held on Sunday, October 3rd at 1:00pm. The location is the same as last year, Grays beach park in Kingston. We are very excited about the entertainment we have scheduled for this year with many activities and fun for everyone.

Every year the money we raise goes to NDSS, the local ARC(BAARC), and a different project we do every year to help raise awareness and promote inclusion in the community. For example, one year we donated inclusion lesson plans put out by NDSS to local school systems. Another year we donated the book "Gifts" to libraries in local towns.

****This year we plan on using a big chunk of the money raised to put together care packs for families whose child with DS is facing heart surgery. We are working with the Mass Down Syndrome Congress on this project, and the packs will include items such as restaurant gift cards, Dunkin Donut gift cards, parking vouchers, playing cards, gum and toys for the child. We are VERY excited about this and are proud to say that we already provided  families with a care packages!