{"id":373,"date":"2012-11-07T10:00:01","date_gmt":"2012-11-07T10:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jldesigntestsite.info\/desmoines\/?p=373"},"modified":"2024-09-09T15:58:02","modified_gmt":"2024-09-09T20:58:02","slug":"health-professional-advocate-downs-awareness-bargstadt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/desmoines\/uncategorized\/health-professional-advocate-downs-awareness-bargstadt","title":{"rendered":"Health Professional Profile: Advocate for Down’s awareness; Bargstadt has stake as mom, president of GiGi’s Playhouse"},"content":{"rendered":"

On October 24 the Des Moines Register ran a story about GiGi’s Playhouse and the ‘i have a voice’ Traveling Galleries! \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Health Professional Profile: Advocate for Down’s awareness<\/h1>\n

Bargstadt has stake as mom, president of GiGi’s Playhouse<\/h2>\n

\"Down<\/a>Daniell Bargstadt had sought a place to gather socially and learn from fellow parents raising children with Down syndrome. After learning about a center providing just that \u2014 GiGi\u2019s Playhouse in Illinois \u2014 she and other families raised money to open a center in Sioux City in 2009. GiGi\u2019s Playhouse Des Moines soon followed.<\/p>\n

Bargstadt, who now lives in Creston and serves as board president at the Des Moines center, works with other families to raise awareness through efforts like the \u201ci have a voice\u201d photo gallery, currently on display at Jordan Creek Town Center in West Des Moines.<\/p>\n

Q: What\u2019s your personal connection to Down syndrome?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My youngest daughter, Olivia Ann, was born with Down syndrome in 2005. It was an unexpected diagnosis after delivery, a total surprise to our family, but a real blessing. Olivia has changed everyone drastically, all for the better.<\/p>\n

Q: How important has GiGi\u2019s Playhouse been for Iowa families?<\/strong><\/p>\n

GiGi’s Playhouse means so many things to so many people. Mainly it is a gathering place where no one is judged by their disability or ability, what they have, or are accomplishing. We are an education center that offers literacy and math tutoring for learners aged 3 to 99+. Our programming includes social boundaries classes, music and speech therapy and Friday Friends. We hope to add handwriting and a more intense phonics class in the coming year.<\/p>\n

\"GiGi's<\/a>Q: What\u2019s the goal of the \u201ci have a voice\u201d traveling exhibit?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The galleries are amazing. GiGi’s Playhouse Des Moines has two of four galleries across the nation. Ours feature 42 beautiful, local faces of adults and children with Down syndrome. It is about spreading Down syndrome awareness, changing outdated perspectives and stereotypes into positive ones.<\/p>\n

We felt showcasing how much these individuals have similar everyday lives, interests and loves as any person their age was important. These galleries can be booked to travel to schools, libraries, colleges, businesses and expos across the nation.<\/p>\n

Q: What are some misconceptions about Down syndrome?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Maternal age.<\/strong>\u00a0While the chances of having a child with Down syndrome increase with age, an estimated 85 percent of children with it are born to mothers under age 35.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0All individuals with Down syndrome look the same.<\/strong>\u00a0As you can see from the ‘i have a voice’ gallery, that is not true. Each person looks like their family and has their own unique personality.<\/p>\n

\u2022 People with Down syndrome are always happy.<\/strong>\u00a0They have feelings just like everyone . They might be more accepting to your apology and more easily understanding that your intentions were not to harm anything.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Person first language.<\/strong>\u00a0It is important to talk about the individual first, not the disability. My daughter has Down syndrome; she is not my Down syndrome daughter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On October 24 the Des Moines Register ran a story about GiGi’s Playhouse and the ‘i have a voice’ Traveling Galleries! \u00a0 Health Professional Profile: Advocate for Down’s awareness Bargstadt has stake as mom, president of GiGi’s Playhouse Daniell Bargstadt had sought a place to gather socially and learn from fellow parents raising children with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":375,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95,96,1],"tags":[27,61,34,240,236,78,41,4,238,82,17,83,13,81,74,10,97],"class_list":["post-373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-awareness-2","category-family-story","category-uncategorized","tag-activities","tag-awareness","tag-celebration","tag-des-moines","tag-down-syndrome","tag-down-syndrome-awareness-month","tag-education","tag-gigis","tag-gigis-playhouse","tag-i-have-a-voice","tag-job-well-done","tag-love","tag-new-families","tag-one-million-voices","tag-photography","tag-special-needs","tag-traveling-galleries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/desmoines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/desmoines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/desmoines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/desmoines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/desmoines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/desmoines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/desmoines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/desmoines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/desmoines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/desmoines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}