Advocate for Down syndrome community dies

Linda Picchi was an advocate for the Down syndrome community, who inspired parents, educators and health care professionals alike about their unlimited capabilities.

Mrs. Picchi of Streamwood was a beautician by profession, but as a result of the birth of her daughter, Angela, with Down syndrome, her involvement with the special needs community became her passion and ultimately had national implications.

Mrs. Picchi died Tuesday after a long battle with cancer. She was 63.

As a public speaker for the National Association for Down Syndrome, Mrs. Picchi regularly met with obstetricians, pediatricians, nurses, social workers and medical students, all in an effort to educate them in dealing with new parents at the time of diagnosis.

She also met and mentored new families. Her energy and passion for sharing positive news about the syndrome was endless, friends say.

“She was such an inspiration to hundreds and hundreds of families,” says Randi Gillespie of Northbrook, who remembers meeting Picchi shortly after her now 6-year-old son was born with Down syndrome. “She made it OK for a lot of us who were struggling at the beginning.

“I still remember her saying, ‘Randi, a baby is a baby is a baby,'” Gillespie adds. Colleagues say Mrs. Picchi drew inspiration from her own daughter, Angela, who graduated from Streamwood High School, won a gold medal in figure skating with the Special Olympics, and worked part time for the Streamwood Park District before taking a job with a Dominick's food store in Hoffman Estates.

Shelia Hebein, former executive director for the National Association of Down Syndrome, remembers that Mrs. Picchi was in the first public speaker training program mounted by the organization, before she joined the board of directors.

Eventually, Mrs. Picchi was hired as program director for the association, where she remained for 28 years.

Under her leadership, the association mounted a vigorous public speaking program at hospitals across the Chicago metropolitan region, before going into schools to sensitize them to the possibilities of persons with Down syndrome.

“She wanted to meet with anyone in the hospital community who was around families with children with Down syndrome,” Hebein says, “and particularly when the baby was born.”

For special presentations, Mrs. Picchi would appear in tandem with Angela, who also spoke. One of those presentations was to first-year medical students at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine.

“Here we'd been studying the genetics and biomolecular mechanics of these syndromes,” says Dr. Elliot Kaufman, “but she would express the personal side. Together, they made quite an impact on the students.”

Besides her daughter, Mrs. Picchi is survived by her husband, Arthur, sons Arthur (Alice) and Anthony (Gina) and two grandchildren.

Visitation for Mrs. Picchi takes place from 3-9 p.m. today before a 10 a.m. funeral service on Saturday at Ahlgrim & Sons Funeral Home, 330 W. Golf Road in Schaumburg.