Welcome to our NEW Site Director!

We are pleased to announce that Katy Sursa has recently been hired as Site Director for GiGi’s Playhouse Little Rock. She will oversee the day-to-day needs of the playhouse and assist families as they come for programs. She will also be responsible for taking care of the playhouse needs and programming. Katy has extensive experience in non-profit administration and holds a Masters in Public Administration with emphasis in non-profit from Arkansas State University. Katy has been with the startup team working on bringing GiGi’s Playhouse to Arkansas since 2017. She is also the mother of Emma Kate, 5, who has Mosaic Down Syndrome.

When we asked Katy why she is so passionate about bringing GiGi’s Playhouse to Arkansas, she had this to say:

“I have a unique perspective as a mother of a child with Down syndrome in my role as an employee with GiGi’s Playhouse. I understand the fear, uncertainty, and general nervousness that a new parent has at that moment of diagnosis. I understand what it feels like to watch my child go through medical issues like open heart surgery and even struggling with long term issues like GI issues and development struggles. But I have also seen miracles happen in my own family. I’ve watched my daughter smile and verbally introduce herself to a geneticist who just two years prior told me that she would probably be nonverbal her whole life. I’ve seen her stand and run on the playground with other kids when well-meaning doctors told me that she may have significant delays in walking and that she may never be able to play like a typical child. I’ve sat by her side in the hospital room as doctors told me they had no idea how to treat an illness she had but through all of these hard times, there has always been her sunshine. She is light, she is hope and she brings happiness. Emma Kate is only 5 years old right now. I want to change the world that we live in so that parents of children who are born now have a support network that they can turn to and a safe place they can go when they’re scared. I want to help give a child a special place they can go to receive those extra helps that they might need to achieve their Best Of All. I want to be there as the adult with Down syndrome cooks a meal for themselves for the first time start to finish. I want to see this happen not just for my baby, but for all persons of all ages within the Down syndrome community across Arkansas. This can happen and GiGi’s Playhouse will be the tool that gets us there.”

Please help us welcome Katy Sursa as Site Director of GiGi’s Playhouse!

If you would like to contact Katy Sursa please feel free to email her at ksursa@gigisplayhouse.org.