Susan Turner competes in the women’s standing long jump.Anna Brooke Shipley put her right arm around Jessica Sierra as the two broke into similarly wide smiles Saturday morning.
“This is my friend,” Shipley said. “We do everything together.”
Then the 15-year-old Sierra and 19-year-old Shipley ran off to compete in the 46th annual Area 4 Special Olympics Lloyd Ray Smith Spring Games at Red Bank High School, hopeful of winning but hugely happy regardless of the results.
“We call them the Down’s Duo,” said Rick Rogers, who’s worked for more than two decades with special needs students at Central High School. “They love to dance. Anything they see on TV they’ll attempt to do. We had a dance not long ago and they danced for four straight hours. They’re amazing.”
Because such a nickname as Down’s Duo could conceivably offend, someone asked Anna Brooke’s mother, Deborah, if she was bothered by it.