For the last 21 years, families have gathered every October in celebration of Down Syndrome Awareness Month to honor the loved ones in Central Florida with Down syndrome. The Annual Step Up for Down Syndrome Walk is DSACF’s largest fundraiser of the year in which families help raise money to fund programming, educational resources, medical outreach and much more!

Laura and Matt Kleinsteuber, parents to Louis Kleinsteuber, have been the reigning team champs for the last few years raising over $150,000+ for DSACF since 2015. Team Louis is a fun and competitive fundraising team and always brings their personal flare to the Step Up Walk! Thanks to fundraising prizes from the 2019 Step Up Walk, Louis has earned DSACF’s Ambassador of the Year title.

“We found out our baby would be born with Down syndrome just a few weeks before he was due, to say we were surprised by this diagnosis would be an understatement. Luckily we didn’t have to wait too long to meet our beautiful little boy with chubby cheeks and 47 chromosomes. When Louis was about 8 weeks old we attended our first Step Up walk here at Lake Eola. We chose to go alone as our new family of 3 to get a feel for our new community. It was overwhelming to see so many people with Down syndrome in one place! As we walked along the route a young man with Down syndrome came and walked with us and urged us to wave and cheer as we walked, we had our own personal cheerleader.   Next year when October rolled around we were ready to put together a team and invite our friends and family to share in the excitement of the walk! In 2015 Team Louis was created and we are excited to be on our 5th year. Our families and friends have really come together to help us fundraise and help spread awareness for Down syndrome and our local community and to have a fun day celebrating Down syndrome!   A lot has changed since that first walk, our tiny newborn has grown into a little boy who loves running and jumping and pretending to be a firefighter! He’s a big brother now and started Kindergarten this year at a school he loves. Now when we come to Step Up walks we bring our very own cheerleader!” – Laura Kleinsteuber

Stay tuned to find out if Team Louis will defend their title in October 2020!