St. Mary Catholic School in Elora is celebrating World Down Syndrome Day with their school community.
“Every year we start to celebrate Downs Syndrome Day March 21st a week early. We deliver small plain socks drawn on paper for everyone in the school to decorate. We have lots of different coloured socks and reminders that DS day is coming up around the school for the students to see,” shared Vicky Jensen-Beirnes, educational assistant at St. Mary Elora.
The socks are then collected once the students have decorated them. Teachers then draw a sock from each bag, each class has their own, and the person drawn wins a pair of decorated socks to wear on the special day.
Jensen-Beirnes has been leading the celebration for the last five years.
“I contacted the Canadian Down Syndrome Society to learn more about how to teach inclusion in our school. They gave me lots of resources and that’s how this started!” she explained. “We put all the decorated socks up all over the school. It has been a great success and everyone looks forward to making the day special.”
To learn more about World Down Syndrome Day, please visit https://cdss.ca/awareness/world-down-syndrome-day/.