{"id":15552,"date":"2019-10-07T23:34:55","date_gmt":"2019-10-08T06:34:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tomellisphoto.com\/blog\/?p=15552"},"modified":"2019-12-17T09:26:46","modified_gmt":"2019-12-17T17:26:46","slug":"2019-down-syndrome-buddy-walk-at-woodland-park-zoo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tomellisphoto.com\/blog\/2019-down-syndrome-buddy-walk-at-woodland-park-zoo\/","title":{"rendered":"2019 Down Syndrome Buddy Walk at Woodland Park Zoo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Down Syndrome Community Buddy Walk 2019<\/h1>\n

Yesterday I was the photographer for the 2019 Down Syndrome Community Buddy Walk.\u00a0 This is an annual affair, and I have been the lead photographer at this event for 20+ years.\u00a0 It is always a lot of fun, and this year was no exception.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 But this year the event was moved to the Woodland Park Zoo for reasons that are not completely clear to me.\u00a0 It proved to be a great move, with greater attendance and more money raised than any year previous.<\/p>\n

The Buddy Walk is always held at the beginning of October, and somewhat amazingly we have never suffered a rain-out at the event.\u00a0 That is more than slightly incredible; after all, this is Seattle and early October can be a bit damp!\u00a0 But yesterday was anything but wet, with beautiful sunny skies and pleasant (if a little cool) temperatures.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 Teams might only have a few people, but some have more than thirty members!\u00a0 So I am mostly stationary at an advertised location so that people can locate me for the photos.\u00a0 And once again this year the Star Wars costumers from the Garrison Titan of the 501st Legion<\/a> were present at the Buddy Walk.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Several Storm Troopers and Chewbacca spent quite awhile at my little “photo booth” having their pictures taken with various teams and individuals.\u00a0 Nothing like having a 7 foot Wookie as a part of your group photo!\u00a0 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!<\/p>\n

During the actual Walk I deserted my station so I could get photos of the walkers in action.\u00a0 After all, since practically everyone was walking there wasn’t going to be anyone needing their photo taken!\u00a0 A lot of the Star Wars group also participated in the walk, which clearly thrilled a lot of the kids involved.<\/p>\n

Shortly after the walk ended, all of the remaining Star Wars people got a ride on the carousel together.\u00a0 What a kick to watch that group on the Merry-Go-Round!\u00a0 You’ll see some photos of that below.<\/p>\n

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