More than 400-thousand people in the United States are living with Down Syndrome.
And as Joel Runck tells us, organizers of the Buddy Walk in Duluth are helping kids with an extra chromosome get along in a world where assimilation is not always easy.

More than 1600 people strolled along the harbor in Duluth in an effort to raise awareness about children living with Down Syndrome.
Parents asked the community to realize one thing about children living with a genetic abnormality.

"Just an understanding that, I mean to us this is our everyday life and this is normal to us," said Kimberly Birman, parent of a child with Down Syndrome.

Event coordinators this is the seventh year the walk took place in Duluth.
While some say children living with the disorder are sometimes stigmatized, breakthroughs in health care have allowed affected kids to live longer.
The National Down Syndrome Society says life expectancy for the disorder increased from 25 years in 1983 to 60 years today.

"And that's part of what we're here for is to educate people who don't know about Down Syndrome that they're really great kids and their nothing to be afraid of," Patti Walsh, Delbo, MN resident.

Organizers say they want people to realize that kids with Down Syndrome share more similarities than differences with other children.

And guess what, they still laugh, they still cry, they still have problems and you know what they're just like other kids, only they were born with an extra chromosome," Patrick Glys, event co-organizer.

The National Down Syndrome Society says one in every 733 babies is born with the disorder.