MOSES LAKE — The annual Columbia Basin Buddy Walk drew a bigger crowd than expected Saturday.

“We don’t have a number yet, but more than last year,” said Denise Ketola, one of the event’s organizers. One estimate had between 350 and 400 people, she added.

The numbers were great enough that the special T-shirts ran out despite the committee planning ahead, Ketola said.

“We had twice as many shirts as (people) we had preregistered,” she said. “So we bought as many shirts as preregistered, and then again, that many more. And they all went like within 15, 20 minutes.”

Fortunately, the committee had bought more shirts last year than were needed, so everybody got a shirt, just not a current one, she said.

The walk began and ended at McCosh Park in Moses Lake, with food and fun activities at the park as well. The theme this year was honoring parents and caregivers for people with Down syndrome. That’s not always an easy row to hoe, several parents said, but community support can go a long way.

“This community's really good for supporting our kids,” Jodie Gillmore, one of the parents who spoke, said in an interview afterward. “The school district does really good with helping the kids and trying to encourage them. It's a good place to have a Down syndrome child.”

Gillmore is the mother of identical twins who both have Down syndrome, an extremely rare phenomenon that occurs only once or twice in a million births, according to Down Syndrome Education International. Gillmore’s daughters, Holly and Mariah, 23, have both suffered a number of health issues, she said. One had a stroke from a rare neurological condition for which she needed brain surgery, and the other had surgery to repair a hole in her heart.

“It's been a challenge, but lots of joy there as well,” Gillmore said. “It takes a village to raise kids, whether they're typical kids or special needs kids. There's always somebody that is around to help with them. Primarily who helped me raise my girls were their siblings. They have four older siblings who helped me out a lot. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, whoever can pitch in and help. Without them, it would have been very difficult.”

Eric Aronsohn, whose 14-year-old son Gevin has Down syndrome and whose older daughter Daniella Bushman started the Columbia Basin Buddy Walk 11 years ago, said in an interview afterward that the local community has done a lot to help Gevin integrate. Gevin attends Columbia Middle School full-time and is active in swimming, cheer and gymnastics, Aronsohn said.

“We want to integrate people with Down syndrome into the communities and the work environments, schools and everywhere, so they get treated as normally as they can be treated,” he said. “We try to integrate (Gevin) in as many different things as he can. He participates pretty actively in our church and church activities. Our church does a really good job with integrating him into all the activities and doing things with him also. And the school has done a good job with him. He really loves the school, he enjoys his teachers, he enjoys the people.”

At the Buddy Walk, Aronsohn recounted a story of a man walking along a beach who saw a little boy picking up starfish that had washed ashore and throwing them back into the water.

“The man came up to him and said, ‘You know, it's not gonna make a difference to keep throwing the starfish back in the ocean,’ because there were thousands of starfish on the beach. The little boy picked up a starfish, and he threw it as far as he could into the ocean, and he said, ‘It meant something for that one.’”

“I just want to tell you this,” Aronsohn continued. “Keep on throwing the starfish. Every time you fight for (people with Down syndrome), every time you break down a barrier for them, you throw another starfish in that ocean. We need to make the community understand how we accept the Down syndrome population. So keep throwing the starfish and never give up.”

Joel Martin may be reached via email at jmartin@columbiabasinherald.com.