By Emily Younker

eyounker@joplinglobe.com

Caitlin Marlow was out on the dance floor for almost every song the disc jockey played.

“I try to go to these as much as I can,” the 18-year-old from Little Rock, Ark., said of Saturday night’s costume party and dance for the regional district of Little People of America. “They’re fun, and you get to socialize with people more like yourself.”

About 50 members of the regional district of the organization attended its fall meeting over the weekend at Joplin’s Holiday Inn. It was a chance for families from Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kansas to socialize and share news from their chapters, said director Karen Shelby.

Shelby said the organization provides medical, educational and parental guidance to individuals and families of little people. One of its primary goals is to get rid of what she calls “the m-word”: midget.

“Refer to us mainly by our names, if you can,” Shelby said. “We’re just like everybody else.”

The event coincided with National Dwarfism Awareness Month, which is celebrated in October and is dedicated to improving the quality of life for people with dwarfism.

Becky Hagen, of St. Louis, said one of the greatest benefits of the organization is sharing information and resources with other parents about their children’s conditions and health care providers. Her 15-year-old son, Nicholas, is a little person.

“The most important thing is knowing there’s someone else in the same boat, and we’re all floating along together,” Hagen said.

Mark Hagen said regular meetings are a good way to gather tips and advice from other parents of little people about common issues, such as which types of footstools are best, which bicycles are suitable and how to make a handle for light switches.

Jack Pollock, president of the Kansas City chapter, has two children. Lindsey, a high-school junior, is of normal stature, and Jesse, 8, is a little person. He said one of the most important things the organization does is help new parents.

“Our family would have had a hard time getting through the first few months without the LPA,” he said.

Meetings such as the one over the weekend also are important for the children and young adults who are growing up as little people, Pollock said.

“For kids, it’s to be with other kids of short stature, and they develop lifelong friendships,” he said.