Spring Showcase, Art Show & Best of All Certificates

We were very excited to host our first Spring Showcase this year, upon the completion of our Spring Programs! Thank you to everyone who came out to support our Spring Showcase, as it was such a fun day and a great success! Our Spring Showcase featured our first Art Show, Live Music and a Best of All Certificate ceremony.

We had our first Art Show! Our Teen and Adult participants from Art Explosion arranged their tables full of various pieces of art they made and named over the course of the past year. They also created a poster with their name, pictures of them creating their art and decorated it with their favorite things. They stood at their tables, talking to people attending the art show. Some of them chose to sell certain pieces of art and the funds went back into the Art Explosion program.

 We also had Bryan Stevenson & Red Beard Soul, who played some awesome live music for us to dance and sing to. We were able to place song requests and listen to some of our favorites together to celebrate. Thank you for playing great music for us!

We also gave out so many Best of All Certificates to hard-working participants and shared many stories from the spring session! Throughout the session, volunteers observe for and point out Best of All moments for participants at each program, write them on a tag and hang them on our Best of All wall. These stories were collected and typed on the back of each participant’s certificate, so they would have a Best of All moment or collection of Best of All moments from the session. The certificate showed each program or programs that each participant completed that session. Some participants completed one program and others completed up to five programs. Each participant was called on stage and their certificate was read aloud. The crowd clapped and cheered for each participant. Some program leaders, assistants and tutors were also in attendance, so they could celebrate together. Some participants had their whole family there with them. Great job everyone!

We encourage you to read some of the Best of All moments that were highlighted for some of the participants at the Spring Showcase.

Best of All: Aleena completed Achievers, GiGi Prep, Amina Grace Speech and Language and GiGiFIT. In GiGi Prep, Aleena does a great job showing confidence in making new friendships. Also, Aleena independently chose to do her GiGi Prep writing prompt homework at home during downtime. She looked up family member names from her contact list to spell them. She called her mom and left a voicemail asking how to spell ‘cousins’ so she could write it on her paper! During nutrition following GiGiFIT Adult, there was a healthy taco casserole alternative that she was encouraged to taste and she tried it and even asked for seconds and thirds.

Best of All: Giuseppe completed GiGiFIT Infant and LMNOP. He loves to dance and is signing “more bubbles!” He moves around the room quickly! Giuseppe was playing in a ball pit and said “ball!” Giuseppe is doing motions with the group during songs he has learned during GiGiFIT Infant, such as patting his lap, clapping his hands, signing ‘play’ and waving.

Best of All: Kit completed Amina Grace Speech and Language. Kit has been doing such a great job using his voice! He knows so many great signs, and is now using his voice with his signs too! He has been working on putting sounds on the end of words, and does a great job telling his mom about the words he practices with Miss Maddy! He loves to read books and play games, talk about marching bands, and asking friends to “dance!”

Best of All: Isabella completed GiGi’s Dance, Math, Literacy, Amina Grace Speech and Language and GiGiFIT Kid. Isabella works hard each week at GiGiFIT following directions and imitating actions. She is now able to box jump up onto stacked mats. She can balance and walk across the whole balance beam independently. She is jumping “out-in” in hoops. She is showing her strength when she does push ups. She can balance on one foot and lean forward with her arms. She is now jumping side to side with both feet together. She is independently reading many level C books. She is also counting items and writing numbers to 20. Bella is now able to make her /k/ and /g/ sounds in words! She has also been doing a great job taking a breath to help with smooth speech.

Best of All: Ronnie completed Achievers, Amina Grace Speech and Language, GiGi Prep, GiGi’s Dance, GiGiFIT, GiGi’s Kitchen and Art Explosion. Ronnie consistently comes to GiGi Prep with a positive attitude, her homework done and is willing to share. She takes GiGi Prep very seriously and participates in everything we do. She follows our schedule well and asks questions. She also volunteers to answer questions, read out loud, solve math problems, help others and more. She is a great team player at GiGi Prep! During yoga at GiGi Prep, Ronnie is amazing at so many yoga poses, such as the star, elephant, dolphin, tiger and more.

Great job everyone!