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Mismatched socks for Down Syndrome Awareness Day at Weldon School

March 21 is Down Syndrome Awareness Day, when people all over the world “Rock their Socks”, wearing socks that don’t match to bring attention to the topic.
Bienfait Down Syndrome
The Grade 2-3 classroom at the Bienfait Weldon School won the Down Syndrome Awareness Day mismatched socks contest. Photo submitted

March 21 is Down Syndrome Awareness Day, when people all over the world “Rock their Socks”, wearing socks that don’t match to bring attention to the topic. This year Bienfait Weldon School joined the movement spreading awareness about Down syndrome among its students.

To make a serious conversation more interactive they encouraged kids to wear mismatched socks and turned it into a game. Every classroom participated and most students got involved in the activity.

Weldon School principal Nina Lonsberry explained what they had happening.

“It’s a Down Syndrome Awareness Day today, so we decided that we were going to do something for that. And the funny twist to this whole thing is that the kids are getting really wet at recess time, so we did a contest.

"We told them that they had to have a mismatched pair of socks on for Down Syndrome Awareness Day, and another pair that matches in a Ziploc bag in their backpack. And then we were going to keep that pair here, so when they get wet they can change their socks. It was a Double Whammy kind of thing that we were doing,” Lonsberry said.

The Grade 2-3 classroom that won the contest had 86 per cent of kids participating, Lonsberry noted.

Besides the contest, teachers had conversations with their classes about what Down syndrome was and why kids were asked to wear mismatched socks.

For Weldon School celebrating the Down Syndrome Awareness Day also had personal value.

“It is special to us because we have a retired teacher that just had a grandchild that had Down syndrome. And it just kind of touched home this week for us,” Lonesberry said.

It was the first time the school did any activities for the Down Syndrome Awareness Day, but after this year’s success, they plan to make it a tradition.