Mike and Carol Peterson are pictured with Mia in 2015, the year she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease. According to the website of the National Down Syndrome Society, "chromosome 21 plays a key role in the relationship between down syndrome and Alzheimer's Disease, as it carries a gene that produces one of the key proteins involved with changes in the brain caused by Alzheimer's."

In late November 1973, Mike and Carol Peterson were checking out of the Sioux City hospital where their daughter, Mia, was born four days earlier, when their obstetrician suggested they take the baby to University Hospital in Iowa City for evaluation. He couldn’t be sure, but there were indications Mia had Down Syndrome. Two weeks later, tests confirmed the diagnosis.

Full of questions and fears for their baby’s future, the couple took Mia to see her grandmother on the family farm north of Stanhope. There, holding her new granddaughter, Norma Peterson made what Mike calls “a profound, and many times since proven declaration: this baby will make our family better!”

Down Syndrome is named for English physician John Down, the first to describe it in 1866. It wasn’t until 1959, though, when French physician, Jerome Lejeune, identified Down Syndrome as chromosomal in origin. Dr. Lejeune confirmed those with Down Syndrome have an extra copy, partial or complete, of chromosome 21 in all, or some, of their cells.

If there was a theme to Mia’s life, it was one of self-advocacy. An indomitable spirit, and the steadfast support of family served her well all her life. Webster City schools and educators did much to form Mia, and, in turn, Mia showed Webster City what, in her own words, “a person with disabilities,” could be. Today, more than two years after her death from Alzheimer’s disease, when she’s being recognized by the State Historical Society of Iowa as one of 10 outstanding “Iowans of Action,” seems an appropriate time to remember the out-sized impact Mia had on the lives of those with disabilities across the country.

This is the story of her remarkable life.

Blazing a Trail in Special Education

Recently, Mike Peterson told The Daily Freeman Journal, “I was settling into a new job at Town & Country Insurance, Webster City, and had been invited to a Lion’s Club meeting at Hotel Willson. The program that day, presented by Edie Connover, later Hansen, concerned the Getting Ready Program – a plan for early childhood education for students with learning disabilities. At the end of the program, Mike asked Edie, incredulously, “were you speaking to me today?”

The answer came just days later, when a “home interventionist” visited the Petersons to advise steps they could take at home to begin Mia’s preschool education. Hansen selected and trained the interventionists, mostly former and part-time teachers, then wrote grant applications for funding to support the effort. Two outcomes of her work were a series of classes for parents; explaining the critical role they played, and steps they could take at home with infants to prepare them for learning, and a lending library of educational toys to stimulate learning in very young children. So inspired by this work was Carol Peterson that she went on to become a special education teacher in Webster City Schools, a job she held for 20 years.

Educators have long known the importance of preschool instruction, but in the 1960s only 10% of the nation’s 3- and 4-year-olds were enrolled in preschools. This began to change in 1965 with federal funding for Head Start, the first publicly funded national preschool program.

In Webster City, churches answered the call for preschool instruction. St. Paul’s Lutheran Church preschool opened in1965. Asbury United Methodist and St. Thomas Aquinas Church preschools followed in 1971 and 2001, respectively. All continue today, but in the early years were hesitant to enroll students with special needs. Such attitudes were normal for schools across America at this time, but big changes were ahead for teachers, administrators, parents, and students in the immediate future. Carol Peterson sums it up well, saying, “school districts tended to look at children with disabilities as trainable, not educable.”

The Petersons wouldn’t settle for this for Mia.

At age 3-1/2, Mia began attending a special education preschool in Fort Dodge, riding a bus from Webster City each day.

In 1978, an early childhood special education program was started in half of the former kindergarten room at Sunset Elementary School, Webster City. Mia’s first teacher there was Gayle Olson, who remembers her as “a well-behaved little girl who never gave up. She was a joy to have in class, fun and pleasant.” Thanks to hard work in school, and at home, Mia entered kindergarten able to read, an advantage for any student, but almost a miracle for one with Down Syndrome. This was an early indication Mia might be “high-functioning,” and, so, capable of taking on greater academic work.

Mia’s first “mainstreaming” was in kindergarten where she spent several hours a day in Mrs. Verna Weieneth’s room. Support from Mrs. Weieneth made this a good experience for Mia. Rather than feeling alienated or left out, she benefitted from the experience, and wanted more.

Mia’s early primary school teachers were Kathy Theobald and Phyllis Abbott. Here, she learned the fundamentals of reading, writing and arithmetic. Theobald recalls new state directives mandated practical life skills be taught to special education students during this era. Mia made grocery lists, visited Steve’s Super-Valu, found the items on shelves, and figured out the total cost as part of this exercise. Other “life skills” classes included learning to swim at Fuller Hall, reading street signs, and basic house-keeping skills. To provide transportation for these classes, Theobald got a commercial driver’s license and drove one of the district’s oldest, smallest buses herself, every Friday.

In the 1970s, most states, including Iowa, maintained separate schools for deaf, blind, emotionally disturbed, and intellectually disadvantaged students. These were residential schools, requiring students to live away from their families for months at a time. Parents had little to say about their child’s education. In 1970, the U.S. educated just one in five students with disabilities. In November 1975, Congress passed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the most transformative legislation yet for students with disabilities.

A key provision of IDEA was creation of an individual education plan for each student. Parents and educators developed them together; teachers put them into practice in classrooms. Gayle Olson remembers, “Mike and Carol Peterson were totally involved in Mia’s education and made sure the plan was carefully followed.”

Kathy Theobald added, “Carol insisted we push Mia to achieve more in a completely positive way. It was a pleasure working with the entire Peterson family.”

Mia had a strong desire to participate in classes outside her special education classroom. Carol Peterson recalls; “Mia’s high school teacher, Jennifer Bernard, and school Principal Dan Conrad, collaborated on more mainstreaming for her. “Some of her favorite classes were journalism, speech, and drama. For a woman who went on to a career in writing, public speaking, and advocating for others, Mia’s WCHS experiences set her up for success.”

Mia’s educational journey through Webster City schools occurred at a time when sweeping new legislation broadened opportunities for developmentally disabled students. In many ways, she blazed a trail for those who followed. Her parents, sisters, administrators, and teachers all did their best for her. It calls to mind the old African proverb that “it takes a whole village to raise a child.”

For Mia Peterson, Webster City proved to be such a village.

An athlete Of Special Abilities

People living with Down Syndrome are predisposed to hypothyroidism (a low-performing thyroid) often leading to excessive weight gain. Regular exercise is recommended for better health later in life. Mia’s entire family were physically fit, so for her it was a part of everyday life, but a new motivation now appeared to further Mia’s performance in athletics: Special Olympics.

The first Special Olympics were held at Soldier Field, Chicago, in July 1968, largely the idea of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, whose sister, Rosemary, was developmentally disabled and suffered ill treatment in school, by doctors and hospitals, and even her own family. Only athletes with intellectual disabilities could enter, and from the start the emphasis was on participation rather than competition.

Mia’s first Special Olympics coach was Kathy Theobald, then Ann Kness in junior high, and Jennifer Bernard in high school. Kness, Special Olympics coordinator from 1980-90, remembered, “Mia was an enthusiastic participant, a true team player.”

The Petersons still have a shoebox of ribbons Mia won in soccer, basketball, bowling, track and field, and swimming, many of them printed with the words “skill, courage, sharing and joy.”

Carol says, “these words perfectly describe how Mia felt at Special Olympics. She gained skills and confidence but wasn’t discouraged when others bested her in a race.”

Looking around the supper table at home, Mia saw a family of successful runners. Older sister Missy had run track and cross country. Younger sister Jana started her running track at Webster City Middle School and was a 1992 state cross country runner-up, and 1994 state cross-country champion. Mike Peterson was a member of Webster City Running Club for 27 years and worked on a committee to build an all-weather track at Webster City High School in 1993.

It wasn’t surprising, then, that Mia wanted to join the highly successful WCHS cross country team. When she announced this to her family, they felt it might be too big a step.

Before they’d agree, they challenged Mia to prove she could run two miles -a normal cross-country race – without walking. After training all summer in 1992, Mia met this goal. To convince coach Tony Bussan to allow her to join the team, she wrote a three-page letter she titled, “Never Give up.” Bussan routinely accepted any student, saying “in cross country, everyone participates, there’s no bench,” but remembers the sincerity and strong convictions of Mia’s letter.

Bussan recalled: “Mia was a competitor and wanted to win races, but she was a very slow runner. I coached her as I would any student, asking her to dig deeper, find more endurance and speed, and better her own times.”

The he was asked what he learned from Mia. His voice shaking and eyes filling with tears, he said: “Mia showed me what real success in sports means: finishing races, better performance, being a great teammate – maybe the best teammate I ever saw. One day it came to me: she was far and away one of the most determined athletes, and most successful people, I ever coached.” Bussan kept Mia’s letter, using it for years afterward to recruit and inspire runners at the start of each new season.

Mia graduated from WCHS in 1993, having participated in plays, speech and debate. She was elected Christmas Queen her senior year. During high school, and for a few years after, she worked at Webster City Daycare and Hy-Vee. By special agreement, Mia became WCHS’s first “graduate student,” staying another year to audit elective classes. All these experiences were about to converge in the greatest opportunity, and challenge, of her life.

Advocacy of National Importance

Mia always enjoyed writing. Again, finding inspiration in her sisters, she often told her parents she “wanted to be a writer like Missy.” In fall 1995, Mia met Essie Pederson at the national Down Syndrome Congress. Pederson was then organizing a new nonprofit – Capabilities Unlimited – to advocate for people with developmental disabilities. The new organization would publish a newsletter, written by and for, the developmentally-disabled. Mia asked Essie if she could write for it. Pederson reviewed Mia’s portfolio of work that evening, and extended a job offer to her the next day. While headquarters of Capabilities Unlimited was in Cincinnati, Ohio, Mia worked from Webster City, submitting articles by computer.

Mike Peterson remembers, “. . . the newsletter found a wide readership. Essie capitalized on this success with a grant allowing her to bring one of her field reporters to Cincinnati for six months as a member of the home office staff. Mia was her choice for this experiment.”

At age 24, in 1997, Mia moved to Cincinnati, where, with Pederson as boss, mentor, and friend, her life as a self-reliant adult reached a new level. She rented her first apartment, rode a bus to work, and took public speaking courses at Xavier University. She also met, and began dating, Joseph Buchroeder, her boyfriend of many years. In 2001, Mia proudly carried the Olympic torch through Cincinnati, heralding the Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. That year, 1997, was also the year Mia made history as the first person with Down Syndrome to deliver a plenary address before the National Down Syndrome Congress.

The following year, Mia became the first person with Down Syndrome to sit on the board of the National Down Syndrome Society. In fact, she may have been the first person with Down Syndrome to take a seat on any board – public or private – in the history of the United States. She was also a founding member and chair of the NDSS’s Self-Advocacy Advisory Board.

In 1999, targeting her message of self-advocacy to a larger audience, Mia created her own business, naming it Aiming High. By then she was much in demand as a public speaker,

confidently addressing groups across the country. Her message never strayed far from her firm belief that, for the developmentally disabled, self-help was the best help. Her lasting hope for them could be summed up in one of her signature phrases: “if I can do it, you can do it!”

The Americans with Disabilities Act, some of the most sweeping laws ever passed by congress, set out, at first, to remove barriers for those with physical disabilities. Whether a ramp to a building, a curb cut on a residential street, or wheelchair lift on a city bus, the law has made the U.S. the most accessible nation on Earth. Mia testified on its behalf before a Congressional sub-committee in 2000, marking the law’s 10th anniversary. Today’s much-expanded ADA has provisions for the deaf, blind, those with cerebral palsy, HIV, post-traumatic stress disorder, all forms of cancer, and, notably, developmental disabilities. According to the 2020 U.S. census, 13%, or more than 42.5 million Americans have one. or more, disabilities covered by the ADA.

In 2005, Mia moved to Des Moines to be closer to family. She lived in her own apartment and held several jobs at Iowa Protection & Advocacy, Wellmark YMCA, and Price Chopper on Ingersoll Avenue, where customers were known to wait in her line just to chat with her as she sacked their groceries.

Mia was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease in October 2015, a condition eventually developed by many adults with Down Syndrome. By the time of her death, in 2021, she was a nationally known champion and spokesperson for the developmentally disabled.

But death couldn’t stop what Mia Peterson started.

The Iowa Developmental Disabilities Council, a federally funded state agency, created the Mia Peterson Self-Advocacy Award, given annually to “recognize an Iowan with a disability who embodies Mia’s legacy, and works to advocate for the rights of people with disabilities.” In recognition of the unique contribution made by a board member with Down Syndrome, the National Down Syndrome Society established a permanent chair for self-advocacy at a gathering in New York City in March 2022. It is, officially, the Mia Peterson Memorial Board Seat and may only be occupied by “a female with Down Syndrome who provides coaching, mentoring and empowerment for the Down Syndrome community.”

Sitting in a hotel ballroom in Times Square, a thousand miles from Webster City, Mike and Carol Peterson had much to think about. The recognition that night was a fitting tribute to Mia who spent her entire adult life bettering the lives of people with Down Syndrome. It’s likely, too, they recalled the wise words of Norma Peterson all those years ago in a farmhouse north of Stanhope. Mia Peterson, a girl with Down Syndrome from Webster City, had in so many ways made her family better. But, as the record shows, that was just the beginning.