Posts by nycauthor

This year’s Volunteer Valentine Party was everything it should be – a sweet valentine celebrating our greatest treasure: our volunteer support! Special thanks to Matt Levi for taking these photos, and to the volunteers and families who attended.

  2014 has been a great year! Our annual appeal and matching gift raised over $60,000!  We produced 2 videos to help us share the story of our beautiful community.  Dancing for Down Syndrome gave families a platform to share their experience of being a part of the Down syndrome community with their family and…

An anonymous donor has committed to match up to $15,000 of your contributions this giving season. Click here to give what you can, knowing that your gift will be doubled!   “GiGi’s Playhouse means so much more to Isabella than a neighborhood place for after school activities. It has provided Isabella with confidence, social skills and…

  What do Barbara Walters, Al Gore, James Cameron, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Bono, Michelle Obama and GiGi’s Playhouse New York all  have in common?      Each were asked to acknowledge and share the importance of the contributions made by Glamour Magazine’s five audacious Women of the Year 2014.  The list  of exceptional honorees includes Chelsea…

Imagine the joy of knowing your loved one belongs to a city-wide network of friends, family, and community leaders who promote, support, and celebrate individuals with Down syndrome. Imagine a day when New York City is famous for setting the bar for community inclusion! That’s what GiGi’s Playhouse is about. We need your voice to make…

Spain’s Down Syndrome councillor makes history | Valet 2014   Spain’s first-ever town councillor with Down Syndrome is set to start work in the Spanish city of Valladolid on Monday, but many people with her condition in Spain find themselves unable to vote because of a legal loophole. Thirty-year old Ángela Covadonga Bachiller will take…

Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel, August 21, 2014: Eight students with cognitive disabilities had the chance Thursday afternoon to do something few of their peers get to do: move into a college dorm. That’s because Concordia University Wisconsin, in partnership with Bethesda College of Applied Learning, will be housing the students through a new program aimed at developing…

Children with disabilities benefit from classroom inclusion Language skills improve when preschoolers with disabilities are included in classes with typical peers COLUMBUS, Ohio – The secret to boosting the language skills of preschoolers with disabilities may be to put them in classrooms with typically developing peers, a new study finds. Researchers found that the average…

The Down syndrome community of New York City did something that has never been done before.  A minuscule fraction of the 4 to 5 thousand families touched by Down syndrome estimated to live in the metropolitan area, shared their experiences of loving someone with Down syndrome on Playhouse supported web pages. Thirty-five families posted their stories on the internet and emailed them to…

When I was a young boy, I’d often attend novenas (prayer service) with my mother, with a selfish motive deep in my heart:   As one of ten children, at least for that short time I had Mom all to myself. On one particular evening the visiting priest was a missionary.  He was from Africa and…