Local group helps teen with down syndrome celebrate birthday during pandemic

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Not even a global pandemic and Stay at Home order can stop people from celebrating a local teenager's birthday -- safely, of course.

Meet Diego. He sat bundled up on his porch as a birthday caravan rolled by Wednesday. 

The celebration, complete with cake and presents, with cooked up by ALAS, a group that reaches out to help the families of kids with disabilities such as down syndrome, which Diego was born with.

Like everyone else, they're taking extra precautions during this pandemic.

"They've been experiencing anxiety and isolation and frustration," said Elsa Diaz-Bautista, executive director of ALAS. "And today is Diego's 17th birthday. So we have decided, a group of moms, that we should celebrate it in some sort of way."

"I think it's a little special because they didn't think -- the doctors didn't think he was gonna live past three years old," said Diego's sister, Diana Becerra. "And now he's 17, so he's beat all the odds and he's been through a lot."

Diego has a weakened immune system, so he had to stay well covered, but he did tell his sister that he was happy and excited about his party.