{"id":18374,"date":"2022-11-22T09:41:35","date_gmt":"2022-11-22T16:41:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/denver\/?p=18374"},"modified":"2022-11-23T09:03:43","modified_gmt":"2022-11-23T16:03:43","slug":"shelly-and-julio-be-the-change-you-want-to-see","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/denver\/2022\/11\/22\/shelly-and-julio-be-the-change-you-want-to-see\/","title":{"rendered":"Shelly and Julio: Be the Change You Want to See"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shelly Dragul, a former elementary school teacher, is now a level two literacy tutor at GiGi\u2019s Playhouse Denver.\u00a0 Shelly dedicates time, energy, and a whole lotta love to parents, family members, and individuals with Dow<\/span>n syndrome. One year ago, Shelly saw a news story about the Denver Playhouse opening and immediately reached and started volunteering. <\/span><\/p>\n

Shelley said that she volunteers because, \u201cIt fills my bucket. It just makes me so happy and content, it is the most rewarding thing I do.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Starting out, Shelly was paired with a young man named Julio, whom we initially thought was non-verbal and also a Spanish-speaker.\u00a0 She was a little nervous that the language barrier could impact how successful she and Julio would be during their literacy tutoring.\u00a0 They connected from their very first meeting and developed a bond that we have been fortunate to see their amazing relationship firsthand. Julio is an incredible artist and quite good at writing and reading! Shelly took Julio\u2019s strength and passion for drawing and together they began to create books at each of his sessions. Julio was also an incredible teacher at one of his sessions where he was able to proudly read two of his masterpieces to a younger Playhouse participant, Izzy.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Shelly had told <\/span>us several times that she looks forward to her weekly sessions with Julio as he just brings her so much joy and happiness. In fact, Shelly\u2019s entire family knows all about Julio and they just love hearing about his progress every week.\u00a0 Shelly told us that she learns so much from the students, \u201cThey have taught me that I can teach any age, not just elementary and that I just love to teach.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Her impact was demonstrated when Julio confidently read one of his books aloud to an audience of seven guests at the Playhouse.\u00a0 This \u201cBest of All Moment\u201d brought the main objective of each Playhouse to life: create an environment that fosters learning and development.\u00a0 It was so evident in Julio\u2019s confidence and sense of accomplishment.\u00a0 Thanks to Shelley\u2019s gift of time and dedication, she\u2019s helped Julio to grow into an amazing author, illustrator, and reader!\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We thrive on support from our local volunteers and donors to make \u201cBest of All Moments\u201d like Shelley and Julio\u2019s.\u00a0 This giving season, please consider donating to our <\/span>Colorado Gives<\/span><\/a> campaign or <\/span>volunteering<\/span><\/a> with the Denver Playhouse.\u00a0\u00a0 To learn more about our volunteer program and how you can make a difference, click <\/span>here.<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

GiGis<\/span> Playhouse Denver LLC | Colorado Gives 365<\/span><\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shelly Dragul, a former elementary school teacher, is now a level two literacy tutor at GiGi\u2019s Playhouse Denver.\u00a0 Shelly dedicates time, energy, and a whole lotta love to parents, family members, and individuals with Down syndrome. One year ago, Shelly saw a news story about the Denver Playhouse opening and immediately reached and started volunteering.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1473,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wpo365_audiences":[],"wpo365_private":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[59,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-programs","category-volunteers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/denver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/denver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/denver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/denver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1473"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/denver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/denver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18374\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/denver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/denver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/denver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}