At Buddy Walk, he'll be dancing

In many ways, he's just a regular guy.

Chad Mayer, 30, works as a clerk at the downtown law firm Keating, Muething & Klekamp. He swims, and plays softball, basketball and soccer. He likes ballroom dancing, especially the waltz and swing. He enjoys hanging out with friends, including his girlfriend.
The Green Township resident knows he's different, though, because of what he calls a special gift from God.

He has Down syndrome.

"Things are going well," he says, dressed in slacks, white shirt and tie and frequently flashing a broad smile in a conference room at the law firm. "People like me. I like them. And I like the work."

He won't be working Saturday, though, when the Down Syndrome Association of Greater Cincinnati holds its ninth annual Buddy Walk at Sawyer Point. He and others from A-Marika Dance Co., the Sharonville studio where he takes lessons, will put their dance moves on display for walkers.

The walk, which typically draws more than 7,000 people, begins at 10 a.m. The after-party, including games, food and entertainment, runs until 3 p.m. This year's fund-raising goal is $380,000.


More than a money-maker, the walk is "a day of awareness and celebration of Down syndrome. It really is an uplifting event," says Sally Kennedy Tilow, the association's outreach coordinator.


As uplifting stories go, Chad Mayer's is hard to top.


His mother, Sue Mayer, thinks back 30 years to when Chad, her middle child, was born. She and her husband, Jay, are from Cincinnati but had just moved to Seattle.

"We were told by a nurse to put him in an institution," she says. Indeed, some people offered a bleak picture of what to expect. "He wouldn't read, wouldn't walk, wouldn't do this and that. That was very upsetting."

She resolved to take her son home, love him, and give him every opportunity to succeed.


After the Mayers moved back to Cincinnati, Chad attended a school for people with disabilities until his mother was told there was no one to help her son with reading. So she enrolled him in the Three Rivers Local School District.


"We thought we would keep him in first grade for two years," she says. Chad balked. He wanted to move ahead with his class. The school and his parents let him.


It wasn't always easy, his mother says, but he continued in age-appropriate classes all the way through high school. He was a member of the swim team at Taylor High, where he earned a diploma in 1998. Meanwhile, he was collecting many ribbons and medals through Special Olympics.


He got his first job at age 16, at Burger King. That was important, he says, "so I could start making a living for myself."


He's had a number of jobs since then: Kroger, Thriftway, Bayley Place retirement community, Provident Bank (which became National City). At the law firm, where he's been a full-time employee for two years, his duties include sorting and delivering mail, training new people on the mail machine, stocking copy paper and making an occasional run to court with a co-worker.

"He knows everybody's name," says his boss, Kathy Stanley, the firm's director of clerks. "The attorneys say it's such a nice treat to see him come around. He always has a smile. I don't think I've ever seen him in a bad mood. He's part of our family."


Fitting in is important. Sue Mayer says people with Down syndrome "are like everyone else. They have the same feelings, emotions and they deserve the same respect. They really can accomplish a lot."

So what's left for Chad Mayer to do?


"I am thinking of moving out of my parents' house someday," he says. "Independence is very important to me."

"If he's happy, we'll be fine with it," says his mother, who has never held her son back and isn't about to start now.