THANK YOU HOUSTON FOR MAKING THE 2009 BUDDY WALK THE BIGGEST
DOWN SYNDROME CELEBRATION IN TEXAS!


Our Houston 2009 Buddy Walk was a HUGE Success that couldn’t’ have happened without your participation and commitment. Jones Plaza was filled with our blue Buddy Walk shirts showing support to our Down syndrome community, our volunteers with yellow shirts were enthusiastic and so encouraging to all of our families and friends; but the stars of it all were our kids with Down syndrome, who were wearing the red shirts! To all of our friends, families and supporters, we THANK YOU for making the 9th Annual Houston Buddy Walk truly a Texas-sized event!

We also want to extend great appreciation for our superlative sponsors who have also excelled our ability to create a better future for those with Down syndrome in a much needed way. The following are our Corporate, Community, and Partner Sponsors:

Only with our outstanding sponsors and so many other individual and group donations were we able to surpass our goal of 150,000.00 by 3% for this year’s 9th Annual Houston Buddy Walk!!!!!

To our 2009 BuddyWalk Committee:
Our 2009 Buddy Walk was such a huge success thanks to the hundreds of volunteer hours from our 2009 Buddy Walk Committee. Thank you to each of you who made this dream become a reality, and who stepped up to make the 2009 Buddy Walk our biggest walk ever in DSAH history. Special thanks goes out to Cindi, Ginny, and Lindsay who headed the “Imagine the PossABILITIES” Tent – a new and interactive way to showcase our kids and Down syndrome. We can only hope that out ITP tent keeps growing and growing as the years pass. To our Committee – we say THANK YOU!

To our Volunteers:
You are a magnificent part of our ability to create a better future for those with Down syndrome. To express our gratitude, we want to not only acknowledge the below groups and individuals but also give them awards and certificates for their wonderful gift of time and their spectacular skills. The following volunteered for more than seventy-five hours for the year of 2009:

Girl Scout Troop 17043, Rita Zuniga as troop leader
Mariann Gonzalez and The Panther Pack
Kathleen Westfall
Grace Villanueva

A big Thank you goes to Cici’s Pizza District Manager, Jason Bolton for providing us with more pizza than we could imagine obtaining! Three days before the Buddy Walk, we found that we would be short on our amount of food for volunteers, due to an enormous volunteer response. Just like his incredible pizza, Mr. Bolton rose to satisfy the hunger of our volunteers with his decision to donate an additional forty pizzas. We are very grateful for a total donation of 80 pizzas from Cici’s Pizza!

Another huge thank you goes out to our Buddy Walk Alumni. Buddy Walk Alumni members are our dedicated groups who show up year after year to aide in the operation of certain areas at the Buddy walk. Year after Year these areas are smooth, well run, and trusted developments as a result of these groups’ common knowledge and special skills:

Civitan: Registration – 4 years
Reliant Energy: Volunteers – 2 years
League City Intermediate – Advanced Theater Arts Class: Volunteers – 3 years

We would also like to thank the noble and magnanimous Officers from the Houston Police Department who volunteered to award medals to individuals with Down syndrome for their amazing accomplishments and abilities. Many of the officers are a part of crisis intervention teams, a component of HPD and the Nation’s largest. While all officers receive training for the best response to persons with special needs and mental illnesses, Crisis Intervention Team Officers respond to these types of circumstances for the best outcome of all individuals. We are so thankful of the following volunteer Officers whom awarded our children with special honors:

To all of you who made a difference in the lives of our kids and adults with Down syndrome in the Houston and surrounding areas – We THANK YOU and hope to see you at the 10th Annual Houston Buddy Walk in 2010!