Down Syndrome Community Buddy Walk 2019

Yesterday I was the photographer for the 2019 Down Syndrome Community Buddy Walk.  This is an annual affair, and I have been the lead photographer at this event for 20+ years.  It is always a lot of fun, and this year was no exception.

In past years the Buddy Walk has always been held at the Seattle Center, though the exact location has varied a bit from year to year.  But this year the event was moved to the Woodland Park Zoo for reasons that are not completely clear to me.  It proved to be a great move, with greater attendance and more money raised than any year previous.

The Buddy Walk is always held at the beginning of October, and somewhat amazingly we have never suffered a rain-out at the event.  That is more than slightly incredible; after all, this is Seattle and early October can be a bit damp!  But yesterday was anything but wet, with beautiful sunny skies and pleasant (if a little cool) temperatures.  Of course, since sunny Sundays in October are kind of rare in Seattle there was a rather large crowd at the Zoo, even without the thousand+ people who were there specifically for the Buddy Walk.

My primary job is to take photos of the various teams who are there to raise money at the Buddy Walk, as well as any of the participants who might want their picture taken.  Teams might only have a few people, but some have more than thirty members!  So I am mostly stationary at an advertised location so that people can locate me for the photos.  And once again this year the Star Wars costumers from the Garrison Titan of the 501st Legion were present at the Buddy Walk.  This is an amazing group who have created simply incredible Star Wars costumes, ranging from Jedi Knights to Wookies to Darth Vader himself. and they are always wonderful about volunteering to take photos with the kids (and adults) who are enamored with their costumes.  Several Storm Troopers and Chewbacca spent quite awhile at my little “photo booth” having their pictures taken with various teams and individuals.  Nothing like having a 7 foot Wookie as a part of your group photo!  The woman who was in charge of organizing the Star Wars group told me that there were 42 costumers there for the Walk, the most we had ever had; pretty impressive!

During the actual Walk I deserted my station so I could get photos of the walkers in action.  After all, since practically everyone was walking there wasn’t going to be anyone needing their photo taken!  A lot of the Star Wars group also participated in the walk, which clearly thrilled a lot of the kids involved.

Shortly after the walk ended, all of the remaining Star Wars people got a ride on the carousel together.  What a kick to watch that group on the Merry-Go-Round!  You’ll see some photos of that below.