{"id":417,"date":"2012-11-19T12:00:35","date_gmt":"2012-11-19T12:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jldesigntestsite.info\/desmoines\/?p=417"},"modified":"2024-10-09T15:46:52","modified_gmt":"2024-10-09T20:46:52","slug":"thankful-for-gigis-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/desmoines\/awareness-2\/thankful-for-gigis-2","title":{"rendered":"Thankful for GiGi’s"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hello GiGi\u2019s friends and families! My name is Jessica, and I am proud to introduce myself as the new Site Coordinator for GiGi\u2019s Playhouse-Des Moines. I started in September, and I already feel like I\u2019m part of the GiGi\u2019s family! At the Therapeutic Play Center Celebration GiGi literally welcomed me with open arms. I was truly taken aback by all the love that filled the playhouse (not to mention the people because the place was packed)!
\nAs an Iowa native, I have lived in Ankeny for all but seven years in Red Oak, Iowa. My parents are Joe and Michelle, and I have three siblings, Joseph, Kiersten, and Sarah. A few fun facts include my love for candy bars and the stars. My favorite movie is Man with a Movie Camera<\/em>, and my favorite color is yellow. I have been a vegetarian for five years, and I haven\u2019t thrown away a fortune from a fortune cookie in over ten years.
\nI graduated from the University of Minnesota with a Bachelor\u2019s degree in Art History and Sociology. After graduation, I moved back to Iowa and began working at T.J. Maxx part-time (if you have ever been into the Ankeny T.J.\u2019s I was the red haired one with the \u201cinteresting\u201d outfit). I love fashion because to me it\u2019s another medium of art, so it was fun working there. After a couple years in management, I longed for something that would quench my thirst to help others. I wanted to do something that would make a difference in somebody\u2019s life. I decided to make the move from retail to non-profit. One day I ran into Bonnie at Target. You all know her as the Programs Coordinator at GiGi\u2019s and Aiden\u2019s mom, but I knew her as my favorite regular customer. Bonnie and I were talking about my history as a nanny, and my interest in transitioning into nonprofit, when Bonnie\u2019s eyes lit up and she told me she knew of a great nonprofit called GiGi\u2019s Playhouse, I was a little shocked because until the week before I had never heard of GiGi\u2019s. I was randomly told by three different people within a week that I should check out GiGi\u2019s, so I took Bonnie\u2019s third mentioning as a sign. Currently, I couldn\u2019t be happier blending my love for kids, planning, people, love, and creativity.
\nAlthough, it has only been a couple of months, I am so proud, impressed, inspired, and motivated to belong to GiGi\u2019s.\u00a0 So thank you all so much for making me feel welcome, and if we haven\u2019t met yet I look forward to meeting you!<\/p>\n

You can read more articles like this by signing up for our Newsletter. \u00a0Please follow this link: gigisplayhouse.org\/desmoines<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hello GiGi\u2019s friends and families! My name is Jessica, and I am proud to introduce myself as the new Site Coordinator for GiGi\u2019s Playhouse-Des Moines. I started in September, and I already feel like I\u2019m part of the GiGi\u2019s family! At the Therapeutic Play Center Celebration GiGi literally welcomed me with open arms. I was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":141661,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95,96],"tags":[27,61,34,240,236,78,41,4,238,82,17,42,83,13,81,10,45,16,14],"class_list":["post-417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-awareness-2","category-family-story","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-learner","tag-love","tag-new-families","tag-one-million-voices","tag-special-needs","tag-volunteer","tag-volunteering","tag-volunteers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/desmoines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417","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=417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/desmoines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/desmoines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/desmoines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/desmoines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/desmoines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}