Gesserine in DS Awareness Poster Contest

The National Down Syndrome Congress is having a poster contest for their "We're More Alike Than Different" campaign. We have entered Gesserine in the contest with a picture I had taken for this blog. (Poster Submission #133)We chose this picture, not just because it is cute, but because we feel it really speaks to the heart of the message.
Do you know that people are actually amazed that Gesserine is able to read? These people are not mean spirited or bigoted, they simply do not know anything about Down Syndrome. I can't stand in judgment on them for that. I was clueless as to what it was before Gesserine was born myself.
Now I know that while a diagnosis of Down Syndrome does mean that a child will have some difficulty and struggles in life, the diagnosis itself is NOT enough to tell us what those struggles will be. Some children with DS will struggle to read, others, like Gess, will excel at it. Some will struggle with physical skills, while others will earn medals for various sports. Some will have health issues and need serious surgery while other children will live a rather healthy life. Boy, this sounds an awful lot like ALL of us! We all have areas that we will struggle with, the important thing is to realize that a label of Down Syndrome does not tell us what those struggles will be. It simply means that they have an extra chromosome. What that person can or can not do should be left up to them to discover. Realize that we ARE more alike than we are different, and we should embrace our differences, rather than ridicule them.
So this is the poster we have submitted for the contest. If you like our submission we would like your vote. The contest originally had some issues and was closed, but it is now open again starting from scratch. Please note that all votes prior to March 5 2010 do NOT count. I would appreciate you voting again if you have the time. Below is the information from their website on how and when to vote. If you have trouble getting to the proper links here, click on the Headquarters link and go directly from their site. Thank you for considering Gesserine (poster #133) as you vote.

More Alike Campaign Headquarters
When we announced the start of voting, we received an unexpectedly large response. Due to the challenges that occurred while we uploaded over 150 new posters, we had to close the original voting process.

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused.

We also learned that some people voted for the same poster more than once on their ballot. This time, please vote for a separate poster for each of your three choices. We will discard the duplicate votes on any ballot where more than one vote appears for the same poster.

The link below will now open a new ballot starting March 5, 2010. Voting will continue through April 1.

Thank you,
The NDSC

As you review the gallery, please note the number of the three posters you like best and then return here to vote for your favorites.

To view the gallery, please click here.

The NDSC will produce the three posters which receive the greatest number of votes between now and April 1, 2010 and will make them part of the More Alike campaign by mid-summer, just in time for the NDSC national Convention.

To cast your vote for your three favorite posters, please click here and then follow the simple ballot instructions.


Comments

Beverly said…
will redo my vote.
March 8, 2010 at 3:49 PM
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