Celebrating Eight Years of Advocacy and Acceptance!

When a dedicated group of individuals first decided to bring GiGi’s Playhouse to life in the Madison over 9 years ago no one truly knew how impactful this would be.

It takes a lot of passion and perseverance to bring a dream to reality. On May 22nd, 2016 the Madison community welcomed our Playhouse to our location on Monona Dr. as the 30th Playhouse in the GiGi’s Playhouse network. Ever since then, we have only set our eyes on reaching as many families as we can and spreading awareness and acceptance as far as possible.

Group of people gathered listening to opening remarks at the GiGi's Playhouse Madison grand opening in May 2016.

Read more about our beginnings here.

Now, eight years later, in 2024 we are serving almost 400 families in the Down syndrome community, have increased our staff and are running a more wide variety of programs than ever before.

Little girl with Down syndrome catching bubbles
school age kids with Down syndrome sitting around a colorful parachute with balls on it
Two adult women with Down syndrome singing karaoke

Since 2016 we have have provided over 31,200 participation hours and have had over 37,500 volunteer hours! As a reminder, our promise to our families is that cost will never be a barrier so all our programs are ALWAYS free. Thanks to our small but mighty staff, a dedicated volunteer board of directors, a small army of passionate volunteers and thousands of donors we are able to keep this promise.

We are optimistic and excited for what our future holds because of all the incredible work we see our community of families and volunteers put in every single day. They inspire us to give our “Best of All” and live our mission of changing the way the world views Down syndrome and brining a global message of acceptance for all!

Banner with balloon letters that says Celebrating 8 years of Acceptance and a picture of 2 young adults with Down syndrome dressed up

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