Lake Wylie playwright: ‘Tell them to love each other’

Sydney LoPour, 26, isn’t like most people. Most people don’t write and direct two plays, a book and an award-winning speech that earned her trips across the country.

LoPour is her own person, with or without Down syndrome, which is the idea behind her writing.

“It’s about love and acceptance,” she said.

The Lake Wylie resident doesn’t have a regular job, but she sure has a resume. She competed in a half dozen Special Olympics sports, and now gives speeches to volunteer and donor groups. She founded Special Friends Making a Difference for God, a faith group for people with special needs. She spoke to students in Arizona, Columbia and elsewhere on how to treat people with special needs.

“I’m just trying to tell them to love each other,” she said. “Love is all you need.”

LoPour graduated from Clover High School in 2009. Prior, she joined the Family, Community and Career Leaders of America club at school, which involved a senior project. She had to give a 10-minute presentation on a topic of her choosing.

“Just because she has special needs, we were not going to let that requirement slide,” said mom LyRae Davis.

LoPour grew up at a time when special needs students were being integrated into traditional classrooms. Academically, challenges were minimal. Socially they were difficult. LoPour said she and friends experienced bullying.

“The groundwork wasn’t laid for the social aspect of it,” Davis said.

So for her project, LoPour addressed it.

She didn’t write to bullies. She wrote to other special needs students, affirming people unlike them still should be loved and accepted. LoPour made it all the way to the state finals.

That experience, along with a talent show performance, led LoPour to write a Christmas musical last year with about two dozen people helping, many from a special needs group that meets at Grace Community Church in Fort Mill. The story used music and the familiar Christmas story to promote acceptance. Now that play is a book with original artwork, “Making a Difference for God.”

This year, LoPour wrote a new play, which she again will direct. “What is the True Meaning of Christmas?” involves friends with special needs who work in a cafe during the holiday season.

“It’s busy,” LoPour said. “They are shopping and buying. It’s not really about that.”

The play will be performed at 5:30 p.m. Dec. 12 at Grace Community Church. LoPour and Davis aren’t committing to another book, but they believe people will enjoy the music and comedy in the new play. Then, they will be back at LoPour’s busy schedule.

She recently had book signings in Fort Mill. She has fundraisers for pediatric cancer and a school backpack program. She has her equestrian therapeutic program, and her time at the adult enrichment center in Fort Mill. Oh, and she plans to strut her stuff in the South Carolina Strawberry Festival pageant next year.

“She’s not afraid,” Davis said. “There’s no shyness.”

LoPour works daily to help others overcome their fear, too. Fear of people unlike them, which LoPour sees as a relatively easy fix.

“It’s all acceptance,” she said.

This story was originally published November 27, 2015 at 1:02 PM with the headline "Lake Wylie playwright: ‘Tell them to love each other’."