Meet the Community: Voices from Long Island and Beyond

Parents, athletes, and choir members share what Team Havlicek has meant to their families this year.

This year we asked members of the Team Havlicek community a simple question: what has this year meant to you? The answers came from parents, self-advocates, siblings, and mentors — from Long Island, from a few states over, and from a few time zones away. Here are a few of them.

From a first-time parent

"When my daughter was diagnosed, I didn't know a single other family in our situation. A friend sent me a link to a Team Havlicek online night. Six months later, my daughter has friends who wave at her on video calls. So do I."

From a returning member

"I've been coming to Team Havlicek events since I was a teenager. I'm 26 now, and it's still the room where I feel most like myself."

From a volunteer mentor

"Every session, someone teaches me something I didn't know I needed to learn — usually about patience, usually about joy."

What comes next

In the coming months we'll be spotlighting more community stories on this blog — including features on members who've stepped into mentor roles, families who've hosted their first local meet-ups, and partners who've helped make our programs possible.

If you have a story you'd like to share, we would be honored to hear it. Send us a note through the Contact section, and let's put more voices from the Williams syndrome community on this page.