Alexis Smith

2022 Youth Ambassador

Alexis “Lexi” Smith loves to be on stage. The 12-year-old recently performed in her school’s production of “Elf The Musical, Jr;” but her next performance may be her most important yet. Lexi will serve as the Youth Ambassador for the I Have a Voice Gala benefitting G

iGi’s Playhouse Indianapolis on Saturday, February 19^th.

“I want to be a Broadway star,” Lexi recently said in a YouTube video. “Check out these jazz hands.”

“This kid lives to perform,” says Lexi’s mom Kendra. “She’s very well spoken and always has a microphone in her hand. She’ll be right in her element.”

Kendra was also a founding board member of GiGi’s Playhouse Indianapolis, a Down syndrome achievement center that provides free educational, therapeutic-based and career development programs for individuals with Down syndrome, their families, and the community. She recognized early on that parents like herself could benefit from the support of other parents raising children with Down syndrome.

“When you first get that diagnosis, you do research and you read books and so much of the literature is bad news,” Kendra recalls. “That can be overwhelming, and you simply can’t do that to yourself. Parents of children with Down syndrome need to connect with others going through the same thing; to have a community to share advice and referrals and to allow their children to grow together.”

Seven years later, the Indianapolis Playhouse provides programming to more than 557 participants in Central Indiana. “This has grown into something beyond what any of us could have imagined,” Kendra admits. “The number of programs that we have. The number of families that we serve. We had no idea the need would be so large.”

Lexi has built an army of friends at GiGi’s by taking classes that help improve speech-language, social and motor skills. When she is not at GiGi’s or on stage, Lexi enjoys participating in the Best Buddies program at her school, posting videos to her YouTube channel, and hanging out with her two older brothers.