BANGOR – Sylvia Cunningham and her brother Donald had seen the Down syndrome Buddy Walk in a long-running Wal-Mart commercial, but it wasn’t until last week that they learned they could participate locally.

“I just got so excited when I heard this was happening here,” the Hulls Cove woman said during a visit Sunday to Cascade Park, the headquarters of the seventh annual Bangor Buddy Walk for Down Syndrome Awareness and Acceptance.

The Maine event, one of about 70 in the nation held Sunday, drew an estimated 300 people last year, according to organizer Tammy Ewing, whose son Zachary has Down syndrome. Ewing expected this year’s event to draw at least that many, if not more. She said the walk is held each year to promote the acceptance of all people with Down syndrome.

In addition to the walk itself – from the park to Eastern Maine Medical Center and back – people of all ages who have the genetic condition, also called Trisomy 21, and their families and friends circulated among booths offering everything from information to face painting, balloons and hot dogs and cold drinks.

If participation is any indication, advocates of people with Down syndrome are making some headway on the awareness front. Ewing said that the first year she participated in the event, sponsored by the National Down Syndrome Society, only about 30 people took part.

On Sunday, Ewing, Cunningham and other family members and friends of people with Down syndrome observed that much of their work to increase awareness involved battling the stigmas they say persist about the condition. Down syndrome occurs at conception and results in an extra chromosome.

“I’ve lived with [Donald] all of my life,” Cunningham said. “I want everyone to know that [people with Down syndrome] are human and that you don’t have to be scared of them. They’re just like you and me.”

Ewing agreed.

“We’d like people to be more open and more accepting,” she said. “I’d like people just to give them a chance. They’ll be your best worker, they’ll be your best neighbor if you’ll just let them. They can and do learn. It just takes a little bit longer. You hear inspirational stories all the time.”

Donald Cunningham, 42, is a case in point.

“I make picnic tables and picnic chairs,” he said Sunday, adding that he also makes wooden lobster traps and other wood products.