Down Syndrome Community Sweetheart Dance 2017

Yesterday I attended the annual Valentine’s Sweetheart Dance for the Seattle area Down Syndrome Community.  For those who do not already know, my daughter Kerri has Down Syndrome.  I have been the volunteer photographer at this event, as well as various other DSC events, for something north of 20 years.  I really can’t remember any longer exactly when I started, but I remember that it was because I attended one of the functions with Kerri 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.

The dance this year was held a bit earlier than usual, and at a different location.  For years the dance has taken place at the Highland Center in Bellevue, but this year things somehow slipped through the cracks and by the time the DSC tried to reserve Highland there were no available dates that would work for the dance.  the Mercer Island Community Center did have a February date open, and even though Valentine’s Day is still a week+ away at least we were able to be in the correct month.

The MI Community Center turned out to be a great place, and the attendance was high.  I am sure there were well over 200 people there, and many of them were families and young kids I had never seen before.  Great to see that families who have kids with Down Syndrome have discovered the DSC, lots of good info there to help them with the challenges of raising a child with DS.

It was quite a party, with pizza and juice and salad served for dinner, and a good DJ who kept the music playing all evening, and the dance floor was packed almost the entire time.  As usual, everyone at the event seemed to have a great time!

Here are a few photos from the evening.  Nothing fancy, I mostly just acted as a photobooth for kids or families who wanted to have their picture taken.