March 21, 2018, is marked as World Down Syndrome Day and across the world people are talking about Down syndrome.

The date was choose in 2012 and has been recognized worldwide ever since. The date being the 21st day of the 3rd month was selected to signify the uniqueness of the trisomy of the 21st chromosome, which is what causes Down syndrome. 

Linda Pappenfoot, a retired educational assistant, from Humboldt Collegiate Institute shared her experience working with Down's students.

Pappenfoot worked at HCI for 20 years and her first task was working with four down syndrome boys from one of the feeder schools in Humboldt.

"I was hired to help with the programming and deliver their programming at the high school level."

When asked how she would describe the students this was her response.

 "They are just like any other kid. They just want to belong, they want to be cheering for a team, they want to be on the team, they want to be in the class, they want to have friends. Just like any other kid."

A large part of Pappenfoot's job was to help with programming and development of ways for these individuals to have a successful life. 

"Integration was a very important focus for us but at the high school level, it's really hard to integrate into these higher functioning academic classes so we would integrate into to PHED, art, home ec, and industrial arts so they could skill develop vocational skills. And when it came to academic classes and things we would work on academics at their levels that would apply to vocational programming and where they would go after they were out of high school."

Many of the students she taught have stayed in Humboldt and some have moved away but when asked about how this made her feel she stated that it was a great feeling to hear a past student say, "Hey, that's was my teacher."

"It was a very successful group of kids and some of them are out working in the community and got the chance to move on in life."

Today we wear different socks and try to discover a little bit more about Downs and how it touches members of our community, but remembering these individuals are just like you and me, wanting to belong.