{"id":604,"date":"2016-02-28T22:04:12","date_gmt":"2016-02-29T03:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/indianapolis\/?p=604"},"modified":"2024-10-11T16:45:47","modified_gmt":"2024-10-11T20:45:47","slug":"604","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/indianapolis\/604\/","title":{"rendered":"Gala 2016:  I Have a Voice to Empower"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri;\">Another successful I Have a Voice Gala is now behind us. This year\u2019s theme of empowerment was evident by parents\u2019 stories of their child\u2019s success at our various programs, a Volunteer of the Year award and its first recipient, a moving speech by a beloved self-advocate, and much more.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri;\">Almost 400 people joined us at the Indiana Roof Ballroom on February 20 for our 3<\/span><sup><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;\">rd<\/span><\/sup><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri;\"> annual gala. Volunteers greeted us and worked in a variety of ways throughout the night. Once again, we aren\u2019t sure where we\u2019d be without the kindness of volunteers.\u00a0Guests enjoyed GiGi-tinis at the open bar and perused the amazing silent auction items donated by so many generous friends. Thank you for buying wine at the wine pull and buying necklaces for the heads and tails game which you played in the hopes of winning a diamond necklace donated by our friends at Smith\u2019s Jewelers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri;\">Having been open for more than a full year, GiGi\u2019s Indy\u00a0was able to award our first annual Kathleen Yohe Volunteer of the Year award (named for our dear friend, the first Indianapolis Playhouse Volunteer Coordinator, and a consummate volunteer herself). Our first recipient, Chuck Robinson, has become invaluable to us in many ways and we are so grateful for his service.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri;\">Thank you to our emcee, Naomi Pescovitz and speakers Sara Hart Weir and Jessica Green. We enjoyed the testimonies of parents, volunteers, and sponsors. And it was because of your overwhelming generosity and the generosity of our amazing sponsors that the evening was a huge success. This success allows GiGi\u2019s Playhouse Indianapolis to continue to provide free educational and therapeutic programs to individuals with Down syndrome and their families.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri;\">The night concluded with music and dancing with the Rory Connolly Band. Thank you also to our photographer Bill Christie (we\u2019ll be posting his pictures to Facebook), MapleLeaf Printing Company, Markey\u2019s Rental and Staging, Mays Entertainment, Kyle Meehan, Smith\u2019s Jewelers, Rebecca Valentine, our Spotlight Speakers, volunteers, gala planning committee, silent auction donors, and sponsors.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Another successful I Have a Voice Gala is now behind us. This year\u2019s theme of empowerment was evident by parents\u2019 stories of their child\u2019s success at our various programs, a Volunteer of the Year award and its first recipient, a moving speech by a beloved self-advocate, and much more. Almost 400 people joined us at&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":142013,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/indianapolis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/indianapolis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/indianapolis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/indianapolis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/indianapolis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/indianapolis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/indianapolis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/indianapolis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/indianapolis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/indianapolis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}