BS: Down Syndrome girl - Homecoming Queen

Subject: BS: Down Syndrome girl - Homecoming Queen
From: GUEST,Wesley S
Date: 12 Oct 08 - 10:18 PM

Here's a story that will warm your heart. It sounds like Aledo High School { just west of Ft Worth } is full of great kids.

Here's the story from The Dallas Morning News

Subject: RE: BS: Down Syndrome girl - Homecoming Queen
From: Alice
Date: 12 Oct 08 - 10:27 PM

"Oh my gosh! I was sitting in the student section and everyone stood up, crying and cheering for Kristin," said longtime friend and fellow senior Meaghan Geary, 17, who first met Kristin in the third grade. "It was great!"

Great story.

Subject: RE: BS: Down Syndrome girl - Homecoming Queen
From: GUEST,Wesley S
Date: 12 Oct 08 - 10:28 PM

Aledo High seniors pick classmate with Down syndrome as homecoming queen

10:09 PM CDT on Saturday, October 11, 2008
By MICHAEL E. YOUNG / The Dallas Morning News
[e-mail]

Never has the selection of a homecoming queen sent so many tears falling so freely.

Kristin Pass, an 18-year-old senior with Down syndrome, became Aledo High School's homecoming queen Friday to a joyous standing ovation and the flutter of a thousand tissues on a remarkable night for an amazing young woman.

Her grandfather, Dr. David Campbell of Corsicana, escorted her onto the field and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek as Kristin joined eight other young women in the Homecoming Court to await the results of the vote, cast by the 360-plus members of Aledo High's senior class.

Then came the announcement ... and pandemonium.

"Oh my gosh! I was sitting in the student section and everyone stood up, crying and cheering for Kristin," said longtime friend and fellow senior Meaghan Geary, 17, who first met Kristin in the third grade. "It was great!"

Carolyn Pass stood at the edge of the football field, taking pictures of her daughter and friends' daughters in the court, when the stadium erupted.

"It's just something you can't even imagine," she said. "And afterward, everyone was just running down to her, congratulating her. And the other girls in the court, they're all just beautiful girls, inside and out."

Ms. Pass said she spoke later with a friend. "She said the only mistake anyone made was not handing out crying towels."

The vote may have been a surprise, but no one who knows Kristin doubts her popularity, her mother said.

"Kristin has a lot of friends – she likes everyone. It doesn't matter if you're tall or short, pretty, not pretty, smart, not smart – she likes everybody. She has great friends. And Aledo is a great community."

"She's just the neatest kid in the whole wide world," added her aunt, Chari Hust of Houston, "and everybody sees that."

Clay Gilmer, who works in the stadium press box, running the scoreboard and clock, said people pushed toward the windows as the young women were introduced.

"They were all pulling for Kristin," Mr. Gilmer said.

When she won, he was thrilled. "This has been such a special time, a special week for Kristin," he said. "And I was really taken by the maturity and the love shown by her friends, her peers, her classmates.

"That makes this a double blessing."

Kristin pronounced the evening "exciting" and "awesome."

She was so thrilled, her mother said, that she took her crown to bed with her.

"She's real proud of it," her friend Meaghan added.

Kristin and her family, including sister Kendall, now a freshman, moved to Aledo when Kristin was in the third grade. She was embraced by the people in town through good times and bad, including the death of her dad, J.T., two years ago.

"We've always had great experiences here," her mom said. "We've been blessed, and I think Kristin brings a lot of blessings to the people she knows."

Her selection as homecoming queen was a wonderful surprise. But Meaghan seemed to have an inkling that it could happen.

"Everyone loves Kristin," she said, "and I didn't know for sure, but in class everyone was like, 'Who are you voting for?' and everybody was like, 'Vote for Kristin, she's so good.' "

Kristin doesn't care what's on the outside, Meaghan said. She's friends with everyone, and everyone admires that.

"She's the person we all want to be," Meaghan said.

Subject: RE: BS: Down Syndrome girl - Homecoming Queen
From: Leadfingers
Date: 12 Oct 08 - 10:38 PM

There IS still hope for the world then !

Subject: RE: BS: Down Syndrome girl - Homecoming Queen
From: Peace
Date: 12 Oct 08 - 10:43 PM

Thanks for the warning. Now I have snot/tears all over my keyboard. here's one back to you, Wesley. And you too, Alice.

Garth Brooks on Youtube.

Lots of great kids around. About seven or eight years back there were some gals who were not invited by anyone to the prom. One young man--quite popular and very good looking--decided to ask the whole group of them to be his escorts. They agreed. I sent him a letter by snail mail care of the Seattle paper that broke the story just to congratulate him on having so much class. Don't know whether or not he ever got the letter, but class he had in abundance.

The world doesn't have enough of these stories making the news. Good one, Wesley.

Subject: RE: BS: Down Syndrome girl - Homecoming Queen
From: Peace
Date: 12 Oct 08 - 10:45 PM

Hey, Leadfingers. You too, buddy. Cross posted.

Subject: RE: BS: Down Syndrome girl - Homecoming Queen
From: Riginslinger
Date: 12 Oct 08 - 11:02 PM

Yeah, me too. Thanks, Leadfingers!

Subject: RE: BS: Down Syndrome girl - Homecoming Queen
From: catspaw49
Date: 12 Oct 08 - 11:10 PM

A great story.

If you're blessed with special kids though its not unusual, just a bit more extreme. We are continually amazed at how "normal" Tris has it at school. Maybe its because he and his class have always been a part of the school but for whatever reason they're into all the same things. Tris had a classmate last year that played football and got in on probably over a dozen plays each game. Most of his eligible classmates went to prom and Tris can go this year.

Geeziz......first time that dawned on me this school year........Wasn't he just getting his first bike?

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Down Syndrome girl - Homecoming Queen
From: Peace
Date: 12 Oct 08 - 11:31 PM

Yeah, Pat, yeah! The trials are heart-rending, but the successes are mind blowing.

Subject: RE: BS: Down Syndrome girl - Homecoming Queen
From: katlaughing
Date: 13 Oct 08 - 12:27 AM

Holy cow, Spaw! It's hard to believe he's that old!

Wesley, thanks for the link. That is a great testament to how some kids these days can all be really special!

Subject: RE: BS: Down Syndrome girl - Homecoming Queen
From: JennieG
Date: 13 Oct 08 - 12:47 AM

Lovely story, and what a great bunch of kids. Now can one of you in the US please explain to this ignorant Ozzie what Homecoming is all about? We don't seem to have a similar ceremony in schools here.

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: BS: Down Syndrome girl - Homecoming Queen
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Oct 08 - 01:54 AM

Homecoming is a bizarre thing that goes on in high schools around the country. I never participated. It's always a big rivalry football game tied in with a dance, and supposedly alumni return to go to the game and the dance. Down here in Texas (Aledo is adjacent to or a suburb of Fort Worth) they go way over the top for both football and homecoming.

For one thing, there are these big "corsages" they make that are so huge they need extra support and have ribbons and gewgaws that drag down to the ground. I think this is a plot to keep florists and craft shops in business. In with all of these there is, as the article conveys, a queen and court selected. I don't know what they do, except spend money. But all of that said, this was a great outcome for this young woman. I think this is a better use of the nonsense of the event than anything I can think of--use it to help someone special know she is loved by her classmates. That makes that homecoming worthwhile.

Texas homecoming corsage photos.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Down Syndrome girl - Homecoming Queen
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 13 Oct 08 - 08:43 AM

In a way it's a sort of Americnised May Queen then.

They sound like good kids.

Subject: RE: BS: Down Syndrome girl - Homecoming Queen
From: GUEST,Kylie
Date: 13 Oct 08 - 10:02 PM

Kristin is one of my best friends. Ive known her since she moved here. I am so proud of her. When i found out she was one of the 3 senior representatives, i cried. This girl knows everyone in our school. Im so glad she won this. Shes been through so much but is the happiest person i know.

Subject: RE: BS: Down Syndrome girl - Homecoming Queen
From: Bee
Date: 14 Oct 08 - 08:21 AM

Great kids! Supports my contention that the majority of teenagers are wonderful young people, and adults who continually whine about 'kids today' don't actually know any teenagers.

Subject: RE: BS: Down Syndrome girl - Homecoming Queen
From: 3refs
Date: 15 Oct 08 - 08:45 AM

I grew up here in Ontario, in a community that at one time was home to one of the worlds largest residential institutions for special kids. My grandmother worked there over 90 years ago, as did my mother some years later. In the late 80's I went back to college to become a Developmental Services Worker so I could become more involved with the Special Olympics. I can't articulate in words the love that one receives from these special people for the smallest of gestures. What those kids did for that young lady was a lesson in life and it will last them all forever!

"I get the joke that only dumb and shallow people are using a term that means dumb and shallow. But it is only funny if you think a "retard" is someone dumb and shallow. I am not those things, but every time the term is used it tells people it is okay to think of me that way and to keep me on the outside."

Frank Stephens
(a very special kid)

Subject: RE: BS: Down Syndrome girl - Homecoming Queen
From: Sorcha
Date: 15 Oct 08 - 06:28 PM

Yes, wonderful story, wonderful kids and a LOT more 'kids' are more wonderful than most of us give them credit for being. Kylie, thanks for checking in here! Wish I could meet Kristin!


Frank Stephens, truer words were never spoken.

SRS....yea, Texas is rather known for always doing things 'Bigger', so corsages are no exception! LOL