{"id":4979,"date":"2019-12-20T19:42:07","date_gmt":"2019-12-20T19:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/Cincinnati\/?p=4979"},"modified":"2019-12-20T19:42:07","modified_gmt":"2019-12-20T19:42:07","slug":"not-just-an-amazing-building","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cincinnati\/2019\/12\/20\/not-just-an-amazing-building\/","title":{"rendered":"Not Just An Amazing Building"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"I look back on my first visit to\u00a0GiGi\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0Playhouse in Indianapolis, IN and what sticks with me most is what I felt while I was there.\u00a0 We started looking into whether\u00a0<\/span>GiGi\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0would be something worth venturing into bringing to Cincinnati, so we decided to visit.\u00a0 It was an average summer Saturday.\u00a0 We were just learning about what\u00a0GiGi\u2019s\u00a0is and what it had to offer but was not expecting what we experienced.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I was the first to arrive and did not pack the family along so I could concentrate on learning, questioning, and finding out what the struggles were.\u00a0 I was apprehensive because it\u2019s a big project and we already had so many great things in Cincinnati.\u00a0 As I pulled up, it looked just like the pictures on the internet, no surprises there.\u00a0 It was amazing to see all the huge pictures of the individuals with Ds in the windows.\u00a0 You can see the pride of the Ds community in the faces on the windows.\u00a0\u00a0What was inside the doors is what really blew me away.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As I looked around, I saw bright colored walls, a couch, bookshelf loaded with books, a stage, a play area for young children, and the kitchen.\u00a0This was all just for individuals with Down syndrome and their families.\u00a0 This big beautiful space had so many uses.\u00a0There was more around the corner, but I didn\u2019t venture on yet.\u00a0 I just took it in.\u00a0 What I first felt was comfort, warmth, and overall joy.\u00a0 It was welcoming but also gave me a sense of security.\u00a0 When the people started showing up, it started to come alive.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Volunteers and adult participants for the cooking program began to fill the kitchen area.\u00a0 I would also note majority of the participants did have Ds, there were also\u00a0a few\u00a0individuals with different abilities in the mix. As they were all continuing to prep in the kitchen area, another young boy came in for 1:1 speech therapy.\u00a0 He went into the therapy room with the therapist and his father.\u00a0 Then the rest of my crew showed up with their families and children.\u00a0 You would think, that\u2019s more than this place could handle, but they all worked and played and discovered without getting in the way of each other.\u00a0 The young kids played on the toys and play yard, the adults continued to cook in the kitchen, and the young boy and his father seemed to be working hard in the therapy room unknowing of all the chatter and movement going on outside of their room.\u00a0 Another group of volunteers were putting together bikes for a future program.\u00a0 A lot was going on.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We were given a tour by the intern.\u00a0 She was a college student who started with\u00a0<\/span>GiGi\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0as a volunteer.\u00a0 She had no prior attachment to anyone with Ds before starting to volunteer there\u00a0and\u00a0learned about\u00a0GiGi\u2019s\u00a0through an internet search looking for places to volunteer.\u00a0 Could you imagine\u00a0<\/span>GiGi\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0being your first impression on individuals with Ds?\u00a0 What a wonderful first impression it made.\u00a0 She said she learned that individuals with Ds are more alike than different and would call the people she had met at\u00a0<\/span>GiGi\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0her friends.\u00a0 She also bragged about the programs she was helping with the most, preschool prep and kindergarten prep.\u00a0 She commented administrators from the schools were coming in to observe because the kids who went through those programs were doing so much better with the transition to preschool and kindergarten than typical kids!\u00a0 Amazing, right?!\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The intern showed us the entire building, from the bathrooms to the Gym, climbing wall, ball pit,\u00a0<\/span>GiGi<\/span>\u00a0U room and all I could do was just get more and more excited about the possibilities of this in Cincinnati.\u00a0 During the tour, I probably cried, laughed, but mostly smiled.\u00a0 One of my friends exclaimed, \u201cwe need this in Cincinnati!\u201d\u00a0 I was so impressed by everything I\u00a0experienced;\u00a0I couldn\u2019t agree more.\u00a0 I could imagine each person that was present had a story about how\u00a0<\/span>GiGi\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0has changed their life or created opportunities that were not there before.\u00a0 I could only imagine the stories that could come from a location in Cincinnati.\u00a0 Week after week, the doors are open and researched-based programs are there and 100% FREE for families.\u00a0 Week after week, the families that come are developing friendships, getting useful resources, and getting this amazing feeling.\u00a0 It was so much more than just an\u00a0amazing\u00a0building, just a play area, just a community room, just a kitchen.\u00a0 It was an experience.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If you\u00a0<\/span>have the opportunity to<\/span>\u00a0visit a\u00a0<\/span>GiGi\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0Playhouse, whether it is something you think you like or not, do it!\u00a0 Go in with all your skepticism.\u00a0 I did,\u00a0and\u00a0I came out a true believer in\u00a0GiGi\u2019s\u00a0Playhouse.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I look back on my first visit to\u00a0GiGi\u2019s\u00a0Playhouse in Indianapolis, IN and what sticks with me most is what I felt while I was there.\u00a0 We started looking into whether\u00a0GiGi\u2019s\u00a0would be something worth venturing into bringing to Cincinnati, so we decided to visit.\u00a0 It was an average summer Saturday.\u00a0 We were just learning about what\u00a0GiGi\u2019s\u00a0is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":177,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/177"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4979\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}