October 19, 2009 6:02 AM
Down syndrome news: Orlando Eagle Scout
Teen with Down syndrome perseveres, earns Eagle Scout badge
Kate Santich
October 18, 2009Nineteen-year-old Peter Becht draws a deep, yogalike breath and the lets the air escape slowly, taking the tension with it. It's a little trick his mother taught him to use whenever raw emotions seem too big.
Then he whispers to himself, "I can do this. I can do this."
He does that a lot these days, the deep breathing and the self-talk, for life is crowded with demands: his senior year of high school, band practice, a job in the afternoons, volunteer work, church and Scouting. Especially Scouting.
The boy who couldn't write his own name until the second grade, who couldn't tie his shoes until he was 11, the boy with Down syndrome, is now a young man earning the highest rank a Scout can: Eagle. Today in a Winter Park church, 100 people will gather to celebrate the achievement.
"I'll be crying," he predicts. "But I'll just keep breathing. And then Mom will probably come and give me a hug."
Among the well-wishers will be former teachers and principals, fellow Scouts, friends and family. Most learned long ago that you shouldn't underestimate him.
"Down syndrome doesn't mean I'm stupid," he will tell you. "It means it takes me longer to learn the same things you do."
It could be a mantra for his generation.
Children with Down syndrome, a chromosomal abnormality, were once locked in institutions, their frequent heart problems and ear infections left untreated. Some were forced to undergo sterilization -- if they lived long enough. Many died in infancy.
It wasn't until the early 1960s when parents began to rebel.
"I think Peter's generation is the first to grow up in a time when parents finally said, 'These are our kids, and we're not sending them away to an institution. If you don't like them, you can go away,'" said Camille Gardiner, who serves on the board of the Down Syndrome Association of Central Florida and has a 6-year-old son with the disorder.
Read more at the Orlando Sentinel
HT: Mary Kathryn
Posted in Disabilities, Down syndrome, Everyday Heroes | Permalink
