ST. LOUIS – A St. Louis woman is heading to Iceland to advocate for children with Down syndrome.
She’s the parent of a young woman with Down syndrome.
Mary Suzanne Crockett’s daughter, Lilly, is part of the ‘Totally Awesome Girlfriend Group,’ a group of dancers with Down syndrome.
Maddie Goldberg directs the group of dancers with Down syndrome. “They are just the most accepting group of people I have ever met,” Goldberg said.
One of the more enthusiastic parents in the group is Mary Suzanne.
Her 20-year-old daughter, Lilly is quite an achiever, she was the homecoming queen at Ladue High School knows everybody from Albert Pujols to David Freese and she has a job at a senior citizen living facility.
"And as Lilly once said on the drive home from sleep away camp- I heard her say my life is awesome," Crockett said.
So last week when Mary Suzanne saw on television that the vast majority of Icelandic women who received a positive, prenatal genetic test for down syndrome terminated their pregnancy, she wanted to do something about it.
“I have a child with down syndrome who is upstairs sleeping who has brought so much joy to my life and I thought how could this be?” Crockett said. “And the next day is when I heard that WOW airlines is coming with a direct flight from St. Louis to Iceland and I thought with these two bits of news it’s a sign."
Mary Suzanne, Lilly and her other daughter Grace will leave for Iceland on Friday.
"Lilly wherever she goes- she just shares love- so i am hoping there will be strategic opportunities to meet with people. I plan on going to the hospital in Reykjavik and to the newspaper and we will see what happens!” Crockett said.
Mary Suzanne will also bring this music video of the girls performing for everyone to see in Iceland.
