Spreading some more Jersey sunshine

November 6, 2007 | By valmg |

I read as many articles as I can that relate to Down Syndrome because my eight year old has Down Syndrome. I’m always on the look out for a new health, current events or human interest story. I like to share what I find because the world needs to realize that people with Down Syndrome are people too, and that they have dreams, wishes and desires, and deserve to be as much a part of the community as anyone else.

In October, one Montclair, New Jersey resident had great success at the Special Olympics World Summer Games held in Shanghai, China. Emily Srebro is a seventeen year old high school junior that has Down Syndrome. Emily captured the gold medal in the floor exercises. But that’s not all. She also earned silver medals for all around performance, uneven bars, and vaulting, and a bronze for balance beam, thereby winning medals in five separate gymnastics events. Emily considers floor exercises her favorite, as well as her strongest event. She said she was thrilled to win so many medals. She dedicates every performance to her late father.

7,500 athletes representing more than 150 countries were at the competition. Team USA was four hundred members strong. Fourteen of the athletes were from New Jersey.

Congratulations Emily! Congratulations to all of the athletes!