Overwhelming was only one of the words Darlene Bertin used to describe what she felt about all of the things that took place last Friday.
Bertin is the founder of the Athabasca Blue Genes Foundation, which is dedicated to raising awareness and providing support to families and their children with Down syndrome so that they can achieve their highest potential.
Blue Genes organized a dinner, concert and fundraiser on Friday at the Athabasca Seniors Centre to celebrate five years in operation and to help recognize the efforts of those in the community that have done so much for the group.
“Not in my wildest dreams did I think our celebration would be like this,” Bertin said of the event that attracted so many people that some even had to be turned away.
“It’s overwhelming. I haven’t yet been quite able to grasp it all. We got way more people than I ever expected and the generosity of the local business for their donations to our auction has been exceptional.”
The seeds of the foundation began 13 years ago when Bertin and her husband Gord received into the world a son born two months early.
“There I was, with a boy in the NICU (neo-natal intensive care unit) when an uncaring, insensitive doctor with no bedside manner proceeded to tell me all the myths and not one positive thing about having a child with Down Syndrome,” Bertin told the crowd.
“Almost as soon as he started, I stopped listening and the wheels began to turn.”
Those wheels, after many years worth of trips to Edmonton for appointments with specialists, eventually turned the motor on the group that would provide access to resources and support to other local families that might not otherwise have been able to reach.
The biggest highlight, for Bertin and the rest of the crowd, was the star power of Canadian country artist Duane Steele, who not only performed at the dinner but also at the two school Buddy Walks that were held earlier in the day.
“It touched me when I was asked to come up as I knew a family member as well as someone during my time in a band in the late 1980s with Down Syndrome,” said Steele.
“Bringing awareness and getting it out to the public what the families go through, that’s really what it’s all about in the end.”
And its that awareness that it all boils down to for Bertin, not so much the fundraising.
“I never thought it would grow so big. The dream has become so incredible,” she added.
“And to have Duane here as well was just so thrilling too.”
