It’s been about 5 years since the making of the film Dakota’s Pride that aired on PBS, so I felt it was time for an update to let people know more about what happened behind the scenes, how things are going now, and why we did the things we did. We had over 14 hours of tape to cut down into 45 minutes, but on my own, the best I could do was an hour and a half. I had to hand over the project to Glenn, and instructed him to make it shorter without telling me what he cut out; there was so much invaluable information, I couldn’t fathom taking it out of the film, but this was the only way we could make the film short enough to air on PBS. I decided to put the movie into book form so I could add those items back in, and tell everyone more about what I found out and put in some background information as well. Also, now that it is in book format, Dakota’s Pride is more accessible and anyone can take it anywhere they’d like and read it on the go. As with the movie Dakota’s Pride, I wanted to share the positive news and hope I was learning about Down Syndrome in a book. I hope you enjoy this book and ebook; the written material was developed by taking the movie Dakota’s Pride, transcribing what was said, adding descriptions of the background scenes and my own personal thoughts and comments. I wanted to make a book as if they had written a book called “chicken noodle soup, for the heart of someone who loves and knows someone with Down Syndrome.” I hope you enjoy. Lastly, after Dakota’s Pride aired on PBS, I was asked many questions about the things we did not have time to share, all the things that were going on behind the scenes and any advice and tips that I could share. With this transcript of the movie, it is all here in the pages of this book. I am going to try to cover everything I can, pack these pages full of helpful information, and put a song in your heart and give hope to your soul.