2019 “Raise the Barr” Service Award Winner – Bruce Dempsey\u00a0<\/span><\/h1>\nHow long have you been volunteering at GiGi\u2019s Playhouse Chicago and what made you want to get involved?<\/h3>\n
When I retired about 8-years ago I knew I wanted to remain involved in Education, but in a different capacity. \u00a0I retired as the Vice President of Education for 10-colleges. \u00a0I wanted to be more hands-on and involved in art [my undergraduate degree is a BFA from Carnegie-Mellon University] \u00a0I also had a childhood friend named Petey M. Petey and I were in the same grade and Petey has Down syndrome. \u00a0My best friend and neighbor\u2019s aunt also had Down syndrome as well as my mother\u2019s cousin\u2019s son. \u00a0I knew I wanted to give back to the community, something art-related and working with children and adults with Down syndrome. \u00a0I did some research, found GiGi\u2019s Playhouse Chicago and reached-out to the Director about the possibility of teaching art. \u00a0It just so happened that the national GiGi\u2019s office had an art curriculum called Art Explosion! and it was the responsibility of each Playhouse to design their own program! \u00a0I started working on developing a curriculum for the Chicago Playhouse and we started teaching the class in the late spring of 2017. \u00a0The course has grown into an annual program, we have a local River North gallery, Gallery Victor Armendariz, who graciously donates part of their gallery space for their December exhibition and a local fine art photographer who reproduces some of the originals into signed and numbered prints. \u00a0The program has received a great deal of publicity and more importantly has been a course to improve the self-confidence and self-assurance of the artists, which was one go the course goals!<\/p>\n
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What volunteer opportunities are you currently\/previously involved in at the Playhouse?<\/h3>\n
I have been teaching the Art Explosion! course since 2017 and have been a literacy tutor for many of the great GiGi\u2019s\u00a0Chicago school age students!<\/p>\n
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Tell us about your favorite GiGi\u2019s Playhouse Chicago memory and why it stands out to you.<\/h3>\n
Our first Art Explosion! gallery exhibition was December 2017. \u00a0Victor Armendariz and Julie from Gallery Victor Armendariz did a phenomenal job matting, hanging and documenting the kids\u2019 works for this show. \u00a0The grand opening for the exhibition was on a Saturday afternoon, to see the faces of the artists\/kids, their parents, families, friends and more, when they walked into the gallery and saw their work on the walls near paintings selling for $20,000 or more was just amazing! \u00a0My goal was to increase their self-confidence and self-assurance that THEY are everything and can do anything was achieved!<\/p>\n
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What advice would you give those who are interested in volunteering at our Playhouse?<\/h3>\n
DO IT!!! \u00a0Don\u2019t walk, run to GiGi\u2019s Chicago, talk to Grace, talk to the Board and just DO IT! \u00a0Just be warned, you think YOU will be giving back to the community, YOU will get 10-fold what you give from the GiGi\u2019s families.<\/p>\n
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What does it mean to you to be awarded the title of volunteer of the year?<\/h3>\n
It\u2019s humbling and I\u2019m honored. \u00a0I never began doing this thinking I would be honored and I wasn\u2019t sure IF I could make a difference, but it has happened! \u00a0I\u2019m deeply honored!<\/p>\n
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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 do to make our Dance…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":221,"featured_media":135606,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-gigisplayhousechicagosupporters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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