The Triangle Down Syndrome Network is bringing a popular kids band that appears on the cable channel Noggin to Raleigh on Sunday for its 11th annual Buddy Walk.

David Weinstone and the Music for Aardvarks Band will play for about an hour starting at 2:30 p.m. during the event at Brier Creek Community Park. The event drew about 1,200 people last year and raised more than $100,000 in donations, registrations and contributions for local Down syndrome education, awareness and support efforts.

Weinstone, a long-time musician for more adult bands, started Music for Aardvarks by accident back in the late 1990s. He was looking for a class to take his young son to and couldn't find anything that he liked after checking out popular music classes at the time.

"I thought things could be a bit more modern and kids could handle more than what they could handle, what they were being spoonfed," he said.

For fun, he wrote some songs and held a class. The recordings of his music spread pretty quickly among parents in Manhattan's East Village. And then he got lucky. A TV news reporter just happened to be doing another news story nearby and ended up doing a story about the class.

"I quit my job because there were so many people that wanted to do this and word-of-mouth spread so fast and all this free press," he said. "Back then, there really wasn't the kind of choices for music that there are now. I still don't really fit into any particular category but it was definitely different."

Weinstone takes cues from the music he grew up with, from the Ramones to Latin music and targets the lyrics to kids under five.

His focus was on the classes until he noticed some Music for Aardvarks cover bands popping up. He decided to start playing his own music live about four years ago. He began performing on Noggin about five years ago, he said.

And his Music for Aardvarks training program for young children is now offered around the country. He continues to teach one class in between recording, performing and television duties.

Weinstone says his concerts are interactive. He's not afraid to invite kids on stage to play and sing along with him.

"Really, anything can happen," he said.

The event is from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Weinstone performs at 2:30 p.m.

Also ...

See the Raleigh Dance Theatre perform its Storybook Tales at 11 a.m., 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday at the Progress Energy Center for Performing Arts in downtown Raleigh. The pre-professional training program, now in its 25th season, will present ballet versions ofseveral popular children's books, including Fancy Nancy: Bonjour Butterfly and Alice in Wonderland. General admission tickets for both performances are $12 in advance and $15 at the door.

Check out Tim Gabriel’s Halloween Village at the Museum of Life and Science. The exhibit features a number of moving parts and a train running around part of the nearly 250-square-foot Village. The exhibit runs from Wedneday, Oct. 14, to Nov. 1 at the museum at 433 Murray Ave., Durham.

Get an inside look at what's going on at North Raleigh's Sertoma Arts Center and pick up some artwork while you're there. The open house and fair includesrefreshments, vendors, entertainment, exhibits and more. It runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. Call 420-2329 for details.

And there's more on the Mom2Mom calendar.