I just wanted to take a minute to let you know that DSANV's participation in the 3 rd Biennial Mosaic DS Research and Awareness Conference was a wonderful success.  The event was held at Virginia Commonwealth University June 29-July

1.  As you may recall we were one of the conference partners for this event.  One of our roles was to assist with volunteer recruiting before the conference.  We had several volunteers and they all did a great job from registration to childcare.  Many thanks to Lorraine Sawka for helping us find these wonderful folks

The conference had a warm, family feel to it.  That kind of family feel is a bit harder to get at the national conferences.  Dr. Colleen Jackson-Cook started out the conference with a bang bringing us up to date on all the most current research in Mosaic DS.  The rest of the conference, the attendees were treated to great breakout sessions by such well known names as Libby Kumin, Sara Rosenfeld-Johnson, Dennis McGuire, Sigfried Pueschel and others.  Topics included feeding issues, speech intelligibility, adult health concerns, reading, neurodevelopmental learning, handwriting and education issues.

One unique feature of this conference was the Kid Konference, a great childcare option for parents to take advantage of.  It should have been renamed “WildCare” as you can well imagine that several handfuls of kids bouncing around can be quite a scene.  But they were in excellent, caring hands with their volunteer care providers and were treated to some great attractions (music, dance, arts and crafts, stories, and most well loved was a karate demonstration!)

I was most impressed by the youth/adults at the conference.  What a great group!  They all (well, almost all) got up and did a special musical number for everyone at the banquet on Saturday night.  A true showstopper!  They had their own conference sessions too and from all appearances they were really enjoying themselves.

I was pleased to serve as the conference coordinator's “gopher” and all around cheerleader for the weekend, pitching in wherever there was a need.  I was pleased to serve the conference attendees in any way that I could as I am a big believer in family support for ALL families.

DSANV had a very visible presence at the conference and we were thanked over and over again.  If this conference comes back to VA, I urge as many families to take advantage of it as possible.  It was great and provided tremendous learning opportunities for families affected by any form of Down syndrome.

Heather A. Trammell
Mom to daughter with Ds & board member of DSANV

I want to thank you for all that you did to make the IMDSA conference the great opportunity that it was!  Wow, I was so impressed!  I am spreading the news that you [might] be back in 2 years, and I hope and expect that the Down Syndrome Assoc. of Greater Richmond will be on board as a sponsor by then.  I'm doing my part to make that happen. 

I wanted to let you know that after talking with Libby Kumin, I have gotten [my daughter] in line for an evaluation appointment at the Loyola clinic.  And, after talking with Sara Rosenfeld-Johnson of Talk Tools, I have ordered the Parent Kit of Talk Tools and am setting up my in-home speech therapy plan for [my daughter].  Both of these opportunities are answers to prayer, and they would not have happened had I not had the good sense to register for the IMDSA conference!

I do thank you so very much for the great conference.  I am looking forward to the next one – [my daughter] will be 14 and in the Youth Conference -- wow!

Elaine Ogburn

Mom to daughter with Ds

Richmond, VA

I always wanted to attend the IMDSA conferences, but this year was my first time.

I couldn't believe how informational the workshops were! I was literally on the edge of my seat thinking, "How did I get by without all this information about speech, education, inclusion, awareness, reading, therapy, and on and on!" Plus, Dr. Jackson-Cook's explanation of the research and the science behind it all was SO eye-opening!

On another note, nothing can compare to finally being around others who have gone through similar and sometimes the exact same experiences! Just watching the other kids with their parents I kept getting the feeling it could have been me with my son. What a bonding experience to finally relate to someone and feel they can relate to you. The people were incredible, there was a wealth of knowledge, PLUS, we had loads of fun together!

I'll definitely be attending for years to come!

Stephanie Jones

IMDSA Youth Conference Coordinator and Newsletter Editor

We had a great time at the conference and learned from so many kind and compassionate people. It was really great to be able to enjoy getting to know people without always worrying what our son was doing, etc. It felt like we could all really be ourselves and be accepted! What a beautiful feeling! We had a wonderful time and encourage people to take this step and embrace the opportunity to connect with other people in similiar circumstances. It really does help and it gave us a lot of hope!

The Paolino Family~ Pat, Candice, Ryan (6 MDS) and Eric (5)