“Raise the Barr” Service Award Recipients 2020 & 2019
Happy Volunteer Awareness Month! Every year, our Playhouse Board of Managers selects a volunteer who goes above and beyond to support our participants and Playhouse families. This year, we are excited to announce our 2020 "Raise the Barr" Service Award recipient is Susannah Kavanaugh! Thank you Susannah for all you...
Quincy Guest Lectures at Rush University
Written by Kate Williams GiGi’s Playhouse and it’s many participants have adapted to unprecedented challenges over the past year. We have found ways to stay connected and continue growing despite our physical locations' closure. An example of the way our community has been resilient (and even thriving) in the face...
What does it mean to be an empowered young adult with Down syndrome?
Hi GiGi’s community! World Down Syndrome Day is coming up on March 21st! At GiGi's Playhouse Chicago, we are excited to celebrate all of the joy, enthusiasm, and achievement of our community. Our participants are bright and capable on World Down Syndrome Day and every day. Diego, Emily, Luis,...
Ways to Celebrate on World Down Syndrome Day
11:30am - 12:30pm - Yoga with Patti and GiGi's Young Adults Join us for a special yoga flow on World Down Syndrome Day, Sunday, March 21st from 11:30am-12:30pm! The yoga session will be led by our Playhouse young adults and yoga program leader Patti. Please consider a suggested donation of...
World Down Syndrome Day is March 21st
Happy March, GiGi’s Playhouse Chicago! This month is extra special and celebratory with March 21st being World Down Syndrome Day. On this day, we get to celebrate and continue to raise awareness about Down syndrome and our mission of global acceptance for all! Did you know these interesting...
Jayden’s Plush Creation – Blog Written by Jayden
Written by: Jayden Hi everybody! This is my new toy that I made! I’m very proud. It is made from felt, stuffing, and marker. First, I hot-glued the head. I left a bit open so I could stuff it. Then I made the body. Then I made the arms...
Explore Our Playhouse Programs
Hello GiGi’s Playhouse Chicago families, volunteers, and community! We are so excited to talk about our free purposeful and progressive programs that we offer here at the Chicago Playhouse. We want to talk about some of our most popular programs and highlight some ones you may not know about. Listed...
Happy New Year, GiGi’s Playhouse Chicago!
Written by: Warner Hellyer, GiGi's Playhouse Chicago Marketing Committee Member We are so excited for this New Year and all that it will bring for our Playhouse. At this year's Board Retreat, our Board of Managers and Staff had the opportunity to sit down, think critically and dream up...
What Has Teen Tastic Been Up to This Year?
Written by Alexis Downes, Alexis Nacht, and Giovanna Savastano – Teen Tastic Group Leaders & Master’s Students in Occupational Therapy at University of Illinois at Chicago As we all know, this year has looked quite different than years in the past. However, Teen Tastic has resumed online and GiGi's...
Holiday Recipes from Cooking Club
Written by: University of Illinois at Chicago Occupational Therapy Students Justyna Falat, Emily Betz, and Kaily Nagel It’s been an exciting year at GiGi’s Cooking Club! When we volunteered to lead the group, we never could have anticipated all of the changes that would take place in 2020, but we...
Look What You Did in 2020!
Dear Friends, We hope this message reaches you safe and well! 2020 has been a year of challenges and opportunities. Perseverance and determination have kept us going and we are excited to keep this energy going into 2021. When the pandemic hit in mid-March, we had to shut down in-person programs...
This Week in EPIC
Written by: Emily Chun, Doctoral Student in Occupational Therapy at Rush University This week in EPIC, we worked on identifying and setting goals. To do this, we used a strategy called GOAL-PLAN-DO-CHECK. Each participant set a goal, made a plan on how they were going to achieve that goal, did...
