Summer Success

Summer is a time for fun, friends, and new experiences.  At GiGi’s Playhouse Indy, we have had more summer programs than ever before in our 3 years here.  We believe our friends should have as much fun and have as many opportunities as possible.  We have been offering programs focusing in Art, Theatre, Cooking, Reading, Team Sports, Community Involvement, and Biking.  We would like to share a particular success story from our bike workshop.

GiGi’s Playhouse Indy was fortunate to partner with Strider and obtain 10 balance bikes.  This gave us the possibility to give 10 kids, ages 8 to 16, the opportunity to learn how to ride a bike.  Our 5-day workshop’s purpose was to set the foundational skills for bike riding.  We had more than 10 incredible volunteers who took time out of their evenings to come and help coach our kiddos.  Our parking lot was blocked off, the rain stayed away, and we had a week full of overcoming fears and leaps of progress.  Our hearts were full to see all the smiles and support from families.

A few days after our bike workshop ended, we received the most heart warming email from Kim Stoeffler, the mother of Samantha — she can ride a bike with pedals! To quote her directly, “Oh my gosh, I have to show you this footage! Samantha has been practicing at our tennis court in our community and she is doing fabulous! Again, I just can’t thank you enough.  Her father and I seriously have shed tears over pride with the success of this.”

Check out the video of Samantha’s success:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8S4i2gWrMw&w=560&h=315]

It is feedback like this that keeps us going.  We are obviously overjoyed with all the progress made from our workshop.  Take a look at the photos below from the week!  We will be meeting again in July for another round of Strider fun! We are fortunate to have such a positive impact on our community.  Nothing makes us happier than to see our programs full and smiles on our participant’s faces!  Everyday is a new opportunity to make a difference in someone’s life.  We encourage all our GiGi’s families to uphold our #GenerationG promise — be accepting, be generous, be kind.