A Look Into Our Weekly Achievers Program
The GiGi’s Achievers program empowers adults with Down syndrome with purposeful activities to ensure continued learning and fulfillment of life. This program teaches and promotes communication, self-awareness, independence, health and wellness through community engagement. Each lesson will provide participants with "hands on” learning experiences in a naturally occurring environment. Our...
Best Buddies Can Be Found Anywhere
In 2023, I attended the Best Buddies Friendship Walk at Elizabethtown College with the Elizabethtown College Dance Team. After leading a workout dance, I explored all the different tables that were set up by various community members and organizations. At some point during the event, a little girl named Bella...
So Much to Celebrate on World Down Syndrome Day
Wow, we had an awesome World Down Syndrome Day this year on 3/21! Every year on March 21, we celebrate World Down Syndrome Day with our community and the world. We celebrate on this day each year because individuals with Down syndrome have 3 copies of their 21st chromosome. We...
And this year’s award winners are…
Each year, GiGi’s Playhouse Lancaster chooses to honor individuals or organizations that go above and beyond for those in our GiGi’s community and beyond. At our Gala on March 22, 2025, we were thrilled to give out 3 awards. Community Impact Champion The Community Impact Champion award goes to an...
How GiGi’s Taught Me To Love Dance Again
Allison was watching the New Holland Parade in the fall of 2021 because her oldest daughter was in the marching band. Allison was not paying much attention to the other parades or floats when her husband, James nudged her and said, “Allison, you would be good at that; It says...
Winter Wonderland Volunteer Appreciation
The Playhouse was transformed into a Winter Wonderland to celebrate our Volunteers at GiGi’s Playhouse Lancaster! Over 30 volunteers gathered at our “Volunteer Appreciation Winter Wonderland” event on January 26, 2025. It was an event to honor the incredible group of individuals who give their time and energy to our...
Best of All Wall
One of our new favorite parts of our Playhouse is our Best of All wall! Our Best of All wall is a place where we take time to highlight and celebrate Best of All moments of our participants of all ages! Best of All is a term we use as...
Birthday Buddies: Lily & GiGi’s Turn 5!
On January 11, 2020, it was an unusually warm and sunny seventy-degree day in Lancaster, PA. It was a day that members of the start up committee for GiGi’s Playhouse Lancaster had dreamed of and worked hard for during the past four years. It was the Grand Opening and Ribbon...
Meet and Greet with Micha Boyett
We had the honor to welcome Micha Boyett, author and cohost of the Down syndrome advocacy podcast, The Lucky Few, into GiGi’s Playhouse Lancaster during Down Syndrome Awareness Month! Micha took the time to visit the Playhouse and share some of her journey with us. Our kiddos decided it was best...
Nai’la Gives Her Best of All
Nai'la, her older sister Kailea, and her mom, Lisa, attended their first GiGi's event, Pancakes & Pajamas, when Nai’la was 11 months old in December 2018. Lisa remembers it like this: “I was nervous and had been feeling isolated for almost a year. I remember walking into the gym and...
Your Baby Can Come to LMNOP
I first heard about GiGi’s from a patient. I’m a family medicine doctor and during a routine visit last fall, one of my patients mentioned an upcoming fundraiser she was participating in for GiGis Playhouse Lancaster - did I know about GiGi’s? I didn’t. She raved about the programs and...
Nancy and “The Gigi” Visit GiGi’s Playhouse Lancaster
In August, Nancy Gianni, Chief Belief Officer & Founder and ‘The Gigi’ of GiGi’s Playhouse embarked on a heartwarming journey to GiGi’s Playhouse Lancaster, a place that’s more than just a Playhouse; It’s a home, a community, and a source of boundless joy for families like theirs. As Nancy and...