Wearing a bright yellow "Team Andrew" shirt, Andrew Speziale, 4, enjoyed spending a sunny afternoon out with friends Sunday.

They were all taking part in the fourth annual Bethel Buddy Walk to benefit the National Down Syndrome Society. Andrew, an active preschooler, is one of 5,000 children born each year with Down syndrome, a chromosomal birth defect that affects more than 350,000 people nationally.

And though he is different than mainstream kids, the fact that he has special needs doesn't slow him down a bit, according to his mom, Jill, one of the walk's organizers.

The Buddy Walk, she said, helps "make people aware that all kids are different. The typical kids learn from the special needs kids and motivate them and they (the special needs kids) don't even realize they are different."

This year's Buddy Walk raised $5,000, not including some pledge money expected in by the end of the week. A bake sale took in $108 and $81 was collected from kids, each paying a dollar to put their thumbprint on a wooden bench Andrew's grandmother donated for the Bethel Library.

The walk began at 1 p.m. Teams, as well as individuals, had collected donation pledges and each person paid $5 to participate.

They gathered at the Sycamore Restaurant and made their way down Greenwood Avenue, looping one mile around the popular diner.

Speziale said there were "many people" to thank and called the day "awesome."

Andrew's cousin, Jessica Robbins, and her mom, Kim, were among the volunteers helping to register walkers. In fact, it was Jessica who came up with the idea to launch the first Bethel Buddy Walk in 2001. She had been researching for a seventh-grade health project on Down syndrome and learned about communities around the country hosting Buddy Walks.

"We are hoping that the word gets around to more people each year and that they can join in," Jessica said. "It feels really good to know that a bunch of people come together to have fun and raise money for the Buddy Walk."


Over the past 10 years, the Buddy Walk program has grown from 17 walks to more than 200 expected in 2004 across the country and around the world. Last year alone, nearly 200,000 people participated in a Buddy Walk.

"People with Down syndrome are more like the rest of us than they are different," said Suzanne Armstrong, A NDSS spokeswoman. "The Buddy Walk is primarily an advocacy about promotion by acceptance and inclusion. The more people see people with Down syndrome, from babies to adults, the more they come away from the walk including all people with disabilities in their lives."

In Bethel, there were racecars and motorcycles that kids could sit on, face painting, someone making balloon hats and animals, the bake sale, and a raffle that gave away almost 30 items.

The day was "just awesome" for Maureen Smith, one of the volunteers, and her children, Bradley, 7, a Berry School third-grader who has Down syndrome, and Marissa, 15.

"It was great. People were there to support it. People donated money who weren't even walking," she said.

While his mom and sister helped with registration, Bradley assisted the volunteers with helping kids make the thumbprints for the bench.

Denise Howe helped out too, along with her husband, Peter, and their kids, Jessica and Jamie. She was "thrilled," she said, to see some of her son's classmates and teachers out supporting the walk and Jamie "loved it."

Jamie was born four years ago with Down syndrome. The first thing Howe remembers asking his doctor is "How severe is it?" Now she cringes when she hears the question asked and says community events like the Buddy Walk helps foster the concept of "inclusion."

"People differ in their opinion on how different Down syndrome can be," she said. "The doctor told me it's all about what you put into it. It's true. He's just a kid."