2018 Down Syndrome Community Valentine’s Day Sweetheart Dance

Last Saturday I was the photographer for the annual Valentine’s Day Sweetheart Dance, put on by the Down Syndrome Community of Puget Sound.  The event was held at the Highland Center in Bellevue, and as best I can tell this was at least the 20th straight year that I have photographed this event.  I thought it would be easy for me to figure out exactly when I first took photos for the dance, but it was several years before I moved to digital photography, and I’m sorry to say that my filing system for the negatives for sessions before 2002 is slightly(?) disorganized.  I really can’t remember any longer exactly when I started, but I do remember that it was because I attended one of the Down Syndrome functions with my daughter Kerri (who has Down Syndrome) when she was quite young, and realized that there was no one except a few parents trying to get photos of the activities.  Remember, this was long before digital photography so it wasn’t like today when every other person in attendance (at least) would be taking phone photos.  Decent cameras were expensive and the costs of processing (film, prints, etc.) were not inexpensive either.  So I stepped in to make sure that there would be good photos of every event.  And I have to say that it has been a lot of fun!

For many years Kerri was an active and enthusiastic participant at this dance.  But several years ago she finally decided that it was really more for the kids, and that she would stick to events for adults with Downs.  But even though Kerri didn’t go to the dance, there were a lot of others who did attend.  I’d estimate that there were ~150+ people at the dance (very possibly more), with an age range from one year old on up to grandparents in their 70s.  And as always, many of the attendees planned to dance as much as possible.

The evening began with a dinner of pizza, salad and a variety of drinks, as well as an amazing dessert bar made up of different desserts brought by the families. Lots of very tasty goodies!  The DJ started playing even before dinner got underway, and as soon as there was music there were dancers on the floor.  Both the DJ and I were set up on the stage; I had maybe 1/3 of the stage set up as a “photo booth” with a Valentines backdrop created by some of the volunteers who organized the dance.  The photo booth was open to anyone and everyone who wanted their picture taken, and over the course of the evening I shot more than 200 photos of everything from a single person to groups of 8-10 people.

As always, everyone there had a great time.  For much of the evening some of the younger dancers invaded the stage, which mad things a bit interesting for the DJ and I to try to do our jobs.  But most of the crowd stuck to the dance floor that was established in the gym immediately in front of the stage.

The dancers kept going strong until the music finally stopped.  Another fun event, I’m already looking forward to the next one!

Here are some pictures from the dance –