On March 22, 2025, GiGi’s Playhouse Lancaster held their annual fundraising gala! Our community helped us raise over $80,000 at Our Evening Under the Sea Gala! The event was held at the Wyndham Lancaster Expo Center and welcomed 250+ guests. In attendance were sponsors, donors, speakers, volunteers, supporters, families, and 33 participants with Down syndrome. We are grateful to our Mermaid Sponsor Samuel N & Dena M. Lombardo and our Starfish sponsors Penn Medicine and Fulton Bank. Our event was lead by Emcee Jere Gish, WGAL’s evening news anchor. The presentation featured a welcome and a speech from two adult self advocates with Down syndrome, Alex Johanning and Addison Sebest. The board president and programs coordinator also shared with the group about the impact of programming on the participants and the community over the past five years. The Wedeking family, who has a toddler with Down syndrome who participates in programming at GiGi’s also shared their story. The group presented 3 awards to attendees. The Community Impact Champion award was given to Cindy Mellinger, due to her connections with Blue Ridge and the support and marketing she provided GiGi’s through digital billboards, commercials, and community outreach events. The Volunteer of the Year awards was given to Mel Beiler, who is a dedicated volunteer in many of our GiGiFIT programs. The #GenerationG award was given to Gary Gregory, who oversees our kitchen volunteers at Pancakes & Pajamas and Bingo and is the chef of our Chili Cook Off chili each year. We also had Tim Keller, auctioneer and friend of GiGi’s auctioned off the first table to get their dinner and presented a Fund a Need with the Paddle raise and our community was so generous! He also lead our first live auction, auctioning off 5 awesome items, including a Bed and Breakfast, tool set, mystery treasure chest, chromosome necklace, and backstage tour to WGAL’s studio. We had live music played by our musician, Amber Hull. Our DJ for the evening was Jordan Senkbeil. We are grateful to ITP for printing our programs and bidder paddles for the evening. We had 19 GiGi’s Dancers, kids and adults with Down syndrome, lead by their dance instructor Allison Woodard, perform to a Trolls 3 song, Family. We are grateful to our photographers James Woodard and Joel Wiebner, who captured our special moments throughout the evening. We also had Ed and Cathy run their photobooth for attendees. Attendees had the chance to play games such as Tentacle Toss and Fins or Flippers. They could bid and win raffle prizes, silent action prizes, a door prize, and shipwrecked spirits. We watched a National Gala video that is shown at each GiGi’s Playhouse gala across the country. We also saw a video of photos and moments from our Lancaster Playhouse set to a song, Hall of Fame. The evening ended with lots of dancing! Thank you to everyone who is helping us change the way the world views Down syndrome!

We hope you consider joining us in Spring 2026 for our next Gala!