{"id":19258,"date":"2022-02-08T10:26:31","date_gmt":"2022-02-08T15:26:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cleveland\/?p=19258"},"modified":"2022-02-08T10:26:31","modified_gmt":"2022-02-08T15:26:31","slug":"participant-spotlight-monica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cleveland\/participant-spotlight-monica\/","title":{"rendered":"Participant Spotlight – Monica!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Monica has been participating in our adult programs since we opened in 2016. She has quickly become a great friend to all, as well as a wonderful example to everyone during her GiGiFIT Adult program. Monica even participates in our GiGi’s at Home GiGi’s Kitchen program weekly. We love and appreciate her positivity and kindness, as well as her work ethic. We are honored to share more about the impact Monica has had on others, especially through her job at Cleveland Clinic’s Fairview Hospital. Her mother, Mary Ellen, shares:<\/p>\n

During the pandemic, many restaurants and food operations had to shut down, but there were some kitchens that just got busier! The hospitals! Patients have to eat and someone has to wash the dishes!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Monica works for Aramark Corporation in nutrition services in the dishroom of Cleveland Clinic\u2019s Fairview Hospital. When the carts of patient trays come back down to the kitchen after meals, Monica helps sort out the trash and load the dishwasher with the glassware, silverware, and dishes. She also helps with scrubbing the large serving bowls and cooking pots, restocking items on the tray line, and cleaning the kitchen.<\/p>\n

There was a high turnover among the employees during the past two years and Monica became one of the more experienced team members in the dish area. When a new employee was hired in June, Monica was asked to come in early to help train the person. A week later, the supervisor asked if Monica could increase her hours from then on. Monica worked about 20 hours per week before that. She now usually works 32 hours a week. In September, Monica had her 3-year anniversary at the job.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This fall Aramark employees received a well-deserved bonus for working through the pandemic. It was Monica\u2019s first bonus. She received the same certificate of recognition as the other employees in the kitchen and it meant a lot to her to be appreciated.<\/p>\n

In November 2021, when Northeast Ohio had a rising number of Covid 19 cases and there were many hospital workers becoming ill as well, Governor DeWine asked National Guard troops to help in the hospitals. Monica was very excited the day she came home telling us about training the soldiers to do the dishes!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Last week, when we had the first big snowstorm, many workers were unable to get to their jobs, including some who use the RTA for transportation.\u00a0 Monica\u2019s supervisor called her to ask if she could come in extra early that day. \u00a0Monica happily agreed and got ready early to help out. Her supervisor told me on the phone, \u201cI am so glad. We love Monica. She is a great worker!\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We are proud of the amazing impact all of our friends with Down syndrome have in their workplace, school, community, and at home. Share with us your favorite success story! We would love to feature it on our blog!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monica has been participating in our adult programs since we opened in 2016. She has quickly become a great friend to all, as well as a wonderful example to everyone during her GiGiFIT Adult program. Monica even participates in our GiGi’s at Home GiGi’s Kitchen program weekly. We love and appreciate her positivity and kindness,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cleveland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19258","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=19258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cleveland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19258\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cleveland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cleveland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/cleveland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}