A number of businesses in downtown Cobourg were the recipient of a gift recognizing Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Awareness Day on Thursday, September 9, 2021.
International FASD Awareness Day and the community came together to recognize the day by walking downtown Cobourg with community members, Councillors Nicole Beatty and Adam Bureau, Northumberland OPP officers and Cobourg Police officers for their second annual Awareness Walk.
Dawn Miller, the Community FASD Coordinator at the Quinte Children’s Treatment Centre said the day was about bringing awareness to the “invisible disability that individuals have that have been exposed to alcohol in the womb.”
Walking around downtown Cobourg on Thursday, individuals placed rocks painted to look like red shoes at various businesses and locations.
Miller said it’s a recognized symbol created by RJ Formanek who has FASD.
Councillor Nicole Beatty said she learned about FASD when a small child came up to her while she was at a downtown café in Cobourg last year.
The child told Beatty about the meaning behind the red rock and since then she’s educated herself about FASD in Canada.
“It’s really heartbreaking to know about 3,000 kids in Canada are born each year and about 300,000 are living with FASD.”
Watching a film about FASD Beatty said the theme was to “be aware.”
“But I think we can go a bit further than that. We can be aware, we can be kind, we can be non-judgemental, we can be one with family and we can be a community. So today let’s be a community and walk together.”
Facts about Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD):
· FASD is a lifelong brain-based disorder that occurs when a developing baby (fetus) is exposed to alcohol before birth
· Studies suggest that up to 4% of people in Canada have FASD – 1 in 25 or 1,451,600 Canadians
· No two people experiencing FASD will face the same challenges, due to the wide variation of effects alcohol has on the brain
· Most often, FASD is an invisible disability and is one of the most frequent causes of developmental disabilities in the western world
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
