Down syndrome advocates enjoy prom night together in Penn's Landing

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- It was an exciting night for a teenage couple who went to the prom together.

But their story has more to do with perseverance than partying because their shared disability is what first brought them together years ago.

Kayla Kosmalski asked Jack Shallow to be her boyfriend with a card on prom night.

"It's official," said Shallow, from Cinnaminson, New Jersey.

The teens have Down syndrome. Shallow, a senior at Cinnaminson High School in South Jersey found a clever way to incorporate their shared extra chromosome into his recent promposal to Kosmalski, who is a junior at Middletown High School in Delaware.

"He said, 'I want to ask Kayla to go to the prom with me. And even better I want to ask her and use the numbers 3 2 1.' And I said, 'why's that?' And he said, 'because Kayla has Down syndrome like me and 3 2 1 represents Down syndrome," said Jack's sister, Bernadette Shallow, of Somers Point, New Jersey.

The two met seven years ago and recently reconnected over a shared mission to advocate for people with Down syndrome.

"I was in D.C and I helped people with disabilities and chase their dreams," said Kosmalski.

Their parents couldn't be happier they are spending prom aboard the Moshulu in Penn's Landing.

"The day she was born, prom was one of the questions that I wondered would happen for her, and here we are. I think society puts this stigma on people with disabilities, and Kayla's just like everyone else. Jack is just like everyone else," said Amy Kosmalski, Kayla's mother.

As for what's next, the two want to spend the summer together. Then Shallow plans to work and Kosmalski will head into her senior year with her eyes set on college where she hopes to study communications to become an actress.