My husband Ron and I first toured PARC when we were making a video for the organization’s 50th Anniversary. We loved everything about PARC, especially the Discovery Learning Center (DLC) preschool. 

When I returned to PARC to begin filing I spent time in all of the program areas. One day I spotted Nicholas, one the foster children in DLC. My heart jumped up in my throat when I learned he needed a home.

In March 1968 living in New Jersey, Marcy, age 25, gave birth to her third child, another beautiful daughter.

Suddenly, Marcy’s life turned upside down.  Debra was three-days old when Marcy and her husband were told by the hospital staff that Debra had Down syndrome; her blood test had revealed an extra chromosome.  A Down syndrome baby is born in every 800 births, usually to mothers over 35 years old.