When junior Laurel Nitzel is home in Nebraska, her little brother will ask her to dance. She and Jonny Nitzel sing together, but when he starts moving to the “Cha Cha Slide,” she prefers to watch.
“I don’t dance with him, but he dances and it’s pretty entertaining,” she said, admitting: “Sometimes he’ll grab my hands and we dance a little bit.”
On Oct. 2, Nitzel posted a photo of her 13-year-old brother on Facebook with the caption, “Jonny the dancer. (DS Awareness day 2).” It was her second post in a daily campaign to raise awareness for Down syndrome, a project she’s continued all month.
Nitzel said her goal was twofold: to demonstrate that people with disabilities are nothing to be afraid of, and to spread awareness of people with disabilities as people.
“People don’t realize how special Down syndrome kids are, and that’s kind of what gave me the motivation to share the joy and the life that they actually are. Because a lot of people don’t know much about them; they just know it’s a disability, and so they’re afraid,” she said.
Nitzel posted once on Facebook for the awareness month last year, but this year she wanted to do something more memorable.
“One post is easy, but one every day takes more thoughtfulness,” she said. “And I think it will remind people more.”
So far, Nitzel has received positive responses, with people coming up to her to tell her how cute her brother is. At the very least, the posts get people thinking, she said.
A few weeks ago, the position of Special Ed. Assistance GOAL Program leader opened up, and Nitzel took the job. The program sends volunteers to Greenfield School, which is just for special-needs students, and public schools in the area from elementary to high school.
“Right now, I have a pretty small volunteer base, but I’m still trying to build,” she said. “And for even what little we are giving to schools, they’re really appreciative.”
With several special needs students and only one teacher, classrooms benefit from volunteer support, Nitzel said, especially since these students often can’t work by themselves.
Junior Jacob Petersen started volunteering this semester, but said he’s already thinking of going more than once a week.
“It’s the best part of the week,” he said. “That hour on Thursdays you get to be completely unselfish and focus on something other than yourself.”
Junior Sarah Strubing, who volunteered with the program freshman year and again this year, said it provides an opportunity to build friendships with students and watch them grow throughout the year.
“The kids get so excited to see the volunteers, and as a volunteer you get just as excited to see the kids and hear what they did during the week or what school projects they have been working on,” Strubing said.
For a week this summer, Nitzel also served as a counselor at a camp for kids with special needs. She was paired with a boy with autism, which, though her brother has minor autism, taught her about a condition with which she wasn’t familiar.
In his own way, her brother has taught her too, through his love of life. Nitzel said he loves to tell knock-knock jokes (often relating to his favorite comedy show, “The Three Stooges”), which he makes up himself.
“They’re terrible. But it’s cute the way he tells them because he thinks he’s so funny,” she said. “That’s something that he does that I’ve never seen someone else do. He’ll just laugh at his own jokes. He’ll collapse laughing because he thinks he’s so funny. And that’s also a common thing with Down syndrome kids. They’re just so happy, they don’t really care if you don’t think they’re funny. They think they’re hilarious.”
Nitzel said the high abortion rate for Down syndrome babies and a lack of understanding of the inherent value of people with special needs grieves her heart. If posting photos of her brother with his ample grin helps raise awareness for the rights and needs of people with special needs, she will have accomplished her mission.
“The overarching I goal I would like people to know is how unique and really valuable people with special needs are,” she said. “I guess I would encourage people to take time and try and get to know people with special needs because they will improve your life, and that’s definitely what Jonny has done to me.”
