From Marlene Prange of Quarryville, PA:

September 9, 2008
Rally at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA
Aleena R. Prange, 4, and Gov. Sarah Palin

With an hour to go before the speeches, little Aleena was getting tired of her perch on mom’s shoulders. Reluctantly, Marlene Prange surrendered their spot toward the front of the packed gym and went off to the sidelines so Aleena could play.

That’s when a member of Gov. Sarah Palin’s advance team approached Shirley Kullander, Marlene’s mother. She said she had noticed that Aleena had Down syndrome, and asked if they would like to come past security and meet Sarah Palin. From Marlene’s account:

“She said, “Awwww” and kind of melted when she saw Aleena. She asked her name and age. Then she hugged her. She actually got watery eyes.”

Marlene said she hopes Palin’s candidacy will bring better public awareness to people with Down syndrome. “I’m excited that people will not be so afraid, and will not think it’s the end of the world,” she said. Here’s her blog post about it.

Editor’s note:

Readers, if you’d like to have your snapshots included here, please send them to patricia@patriciaebauer.com. We’re looking for shots of people with Down syndrome alongside Sen. Obama, Sen. McCain, Sen. Biden or Gov. Palin.

Please enclose the following information: Your full name and city or town; where and when the photo was taken; IDs and relationships of the people in the photo (and ages, for kids), and a few lines about the circumstances. Please also let us know where we may contact you. By sending photos, you are granting permission for their publication.

Earlier campaign snapshots here.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 11th, 2008 at 8:32 am and is filed under Campaign 2008, Down syndrome, NOT2BEMISSED, campaign snapshots, families, first-person, parents, personal stories, politics, public attitudes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.