{"id":18112,"date":"2020-11-23T11:17:31","date_gmt":"2020-11-23T16:17:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cleveland\/?p=18112"},"modified":"2020-11-23T11:17:31","modified_gmt":"2020-11-23T16:17:31","slug":"gigis-played-a-big-part-in-helping-us-survive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cleveland\/gigis-played-a-big-part-in-helping-us-survive\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;GiGi&#8217;s Played a Big Part in Helping us Survive&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cleveland\/files\/2020\/11\/Jacob-resized.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-18113 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cleveland\/files\/2020\/11\/Jacob-resized-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cleveland\/files\/2020\/11\/Jacob-resized-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cleveland\/files\/2020\/11\/Jacob-resized-768x1025.jpg 768w, https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cleveland\/files\/2020\/11\/Jacob-resized.jpg 1006w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a>In February 2020 our two young men, who have DS, were very active. Jonathan attended a day program twice a week; Jacob volunteered in a preschool one morning a week, helped a friend with her daycare another morning, and volunteered at our church\u2019s preschool Sunday School class a couple times a month. Both exercised with GiGiFIT one evening a week, attended Friends\u2019 Group at our church, helped me babysit our grandson one day each week, and did outings at least two to three times a week with a social group for adults with special needs. When COVID hit in March and everything shut down, they lost all contact with friends and extended family. I thought, \u201cWhat are we going to do?!\u201d When it was predicted that the closings could last for two months, I couldn\u2019t bear the thought of being home by ourselves for that long. (We do love each other, but so enjoy variety and the company of other people!)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Now looking back eight months later, GiGi\u2019s played a big part in helping us survive. Once GiGi\u2019s started their virtual programs, Jacob and Jonathan had something to look forward to almost everyday. The friendly faces of GiGi\u2019s staff gave us a break from each other, and someone new to connect with. Jacob quickly became a loyal participant of Erin\u2019s yoga classes, exercising with them three times each week. Emily\u2019s music class and Destination Discovery with Shannon were Jonathan\u2019s favorites. We all have enjoyed cooking many delicious and healthy meals together with GiGi\u2019s cooking class on Fridays.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cleveland\/files\/2020\/11\/Jonathan-resized.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-18114 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cleveland\/files\/2020\/11\/Jonathan-resized-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cleveland\/files\/2020\/11\/Jonathan-resized-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cleveland\/files\/2020\/11\/Jonathan-resized-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cleveland\/files\/2020\/11\/Jonathan-resized.jpg 997w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a>GiGi\u2019s virtual programs have definitely been a life-saver to us. We are forever grateful for the smiling faces of GiGi\u2019s staff that have helped keep us busy, taught us new things, and become our friends. Thank you, GiGi\u2019s! Even though some of their activities have started back up, we are happy to hear the virtual programs will continue even after COVID!<\/p>\n<p>~ Linda<\/p>\n<p>Jacob and Jonathan&#8217;s mom<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">Jacob and Jonathan exercising with their friends in GiGiFIT Adult!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cleveland\/files\/2020\/11\/GiGiFIT-4-14.jpg\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-18115 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cleveland\/files\/2020\/11\/GiGiFIT-4-14-300x204.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"514\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cleveland\/files\/2020\/11\/GiGiFIT-4-14-300x204.jpg 300w, https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cleveland\/files\/2020\/11\/GiGiFIT-4-14-1024x697.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cleveland\/files\/2020\/11\/GiGiFIT-4-14-768x523.jpg 768w, https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cleveland\/files\/2020\/11\/GiGiFIT-4-14-1536x1046.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cleveland\/files\/2020\/11\/GiGiFIT-4-14.jpg 1740w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 514px) 100vw, 514px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cleveland\/files\/2019\/12\/geng-round-450-square.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-6550 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cleveland\/files\/2019\/12\/geng-round-450-square-300x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"198\" height=\"198\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cleveland\/files\/2019\/12\/geng-round-450-square-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cleveland\/files\/2019\/12\/geng-round-450-square-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cleveland\/files\/2019\/12\/geng-round-450-square.png 436w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 198px) 100vw, 198px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In February 2020 our two young men, who have DS, were very active. Jonathan attended a day program twice a week; Jacob volunteered in a preschool one morning a week, helped a friend with her daycare another morning, and volunteered at our church\u2019s preschool Sunday School class a couple times a month. Both exercised with&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wpo365_audiences":[],"wpo365_private":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cleveland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cleveland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cleveland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cleveland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cleveland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cleveland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18112\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cleveland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cleveland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cleveland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}