{"id":458062,"date":"2021-04-02T21:53:23","date_gmt":"2021-04-03T01:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/newyork\/?p=458062"},"modified":"2021-04-02T21:53:23","modified_gmt":"2021-04-03T01:53:23","slug":"world-down-syndrome-day-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/newyork\/world-down-syndrome-day-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"World Down Syndrome Day 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span>Thank you for celebrating World Down Syndrome Day with us on March 21, 2021.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Prior to 03.21.21 we recognized the\u00a0achievements of\u00a0people with Down syndrome\u00a0in our\u00a0community,\u00a0with\u00a0social media posts prior to and after\u00a0this special day. We are\u00a0grateful to YOU our\u00a0GiGi\u2019s\u00a0NYC community; by\u00a0showing\u00a0your support,\u00a0participating with your\u00a0families and friend in\u00a0\u00a0our events.<\/p>\n<p>The 2021 WDSD\u00a0theme was #CONNECT. We are\u00a0fortunate to have generous partners who\u00a0\u00a0devoted their time and effort to connect with GiGi&#8217;s NYC to\u00a0produce our roster of events.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s\u00a0take a closer look at our partnerships and the people at the forefront who made this day possible:<\/p>\n<ul role=\"list\">\n<li class=\"x_x_\"><b>The T21 Project:<\/b>\u00a0Juliet\u00a0Furst, founder of The T21 Project, conducted a series of interviews and photographed members of\u00a0GiGi\u2019s\u00a0NYC in Central Park which were posted on social media capturing their achievements and contributions to\u00a0our\u00a0world.<\/li>\n<li class=\"x_x_x\"><b>New York Cares:<\/b>\u00a0Our\u00a0dedicated\u00a0volunteers led a discussion with our teenagers about what WDSD means to them and how they were going to celebrate the day.<\/li>\n<li><b>John&#8217;s Crazy Socks:<\/b>\u00a0<span>John and Mark Cronin invited members of the GiGi\u2019s NYC community to participate in a World Down Syndrome Day Celebration that John\u2019s\u00a0Crazy\u00a0Socks\u00a0sponsored\u00a0with the National Down Syndrome Society. They asked\u00a0self-advocates with Down syndrome from GiGi&#8217;s NYC to submit a video that was part of a larger video they presented called \u201cI am Down Syndrome.\u201d You can see Malik and Laura from GiGi&#8217;s NYC in\u00a0the video<\/span>\u00a0<b><a title=\"here.\" href=\"https:\/\/cl.s7.exct.net\/?qs=379db5b92e9b685d0d9695e4b73bae5cd5567c16c6a06a7243830cc9b6d0216f01c479e7b6fe973dab2d461e31b74396f08cc85dbc1a6edb\" data-linkto=\"https:\/\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here.<\/a><\/b><\/li>\n<li role=\"listitem\" data-aria-level=\"1\" data-aria-posinset=\"1\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-listid=\"1\"><b>Positive Exposure:<\/b>\u00a0<span>Working with\u00a0Elizabeth Grossman and team, Rick Guidotti interviewed several GiGi&#8217;s NYC families, which included Tsubaki and her\u00a0parents\u00a0Zak and Asuka, Troy\u00a0with his Mom Jane and our\u00a0GiGi\u2019s\u00a0Ambassador, Malik with his Mom Yamira, about their relationships with\u00a0GiGi\u2019s NYC and\u00a0their community.\u00a0\u00a0They discussed with Rick the empowering work being done at GiGi&#8217;s NYC, what\u00a0WDSD means to them and how they would celebrate the day. You can watch the interview<\/span>\u00a0<b><a title=\"here.\" href=\"https:\/\/cl.s7.exct.net\/?qs=379db5b92e9b685dec4730ca3668fb478242307e239c9992cf20709314b1d1e8d8deb68919ab7a1b953e5930bbd1e6908f98be5eac5a92bc\" data-linkto=\"https:\/\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here.<\/a><\/b><\/li>\n<li role=\"listitem\" data-aria-level=\"1\" data-aria-posinset=\"2\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-listid=\"1\"><span><b>GiGi&#8217;s NYC Community Chorus and the Morainbow Foundation:\u00a0<\/b>Produced a watch party\u00a0comprised of inspirational\u00a0songs\u00a0conducted\u00a0by\u00a0Broadway&#8217;s<br \/>\nLaurie Gamache.\u00a0Nigeria\u2019s Save Down Syndrome Ambassador, Tola\u00a0Makinde shared her\u00a0community with us in\u00a0the moving program. Songs\u00a0included\u00a0Firework by Katie Perry, Beautiful City from\u00a0Godspell\u00a0and Try Everything by Shakira.\u00a0\u00a0You can watch our Community Chorus Concert<\/span>\u00a0<u><b><a title=\"here\" href=\"https:\/\/cl.s7.exct.net\/?qs=379db5b92e9b685dad78d01f86bcef01de536be2a78913527f586868887f2f534dda09319c9ced5b9fd51734ba59341fb250e3a76b4b4723\" data-linkto=\"https:\/\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/b><\/u><\/li>\n<li class=\"x_x_\"><b>Barclays Center and Brooklyn Nets Academy Basketball Clinic:<\/b><b>\u00a0<\/b>Michael Wisniewski and Ryan\u00a0Imparato hosted a basketball fitness clinic,\u00a0teaching the fundamentals of basketball handling and shooting techniques. Later in the evening, the Barclays Center celebrated\u00a0WDSD by lighting\u00a0\u00a0their stadium in Blue &amp; Yellow. We thank Leah Lawrence and Kenya\u00a0Johnson for their\u00a0vision and efforts to create this event.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li class=\"x_x_\"><b>Columbia University Best Buddies Chapter:<\/b>\u00a0Hosted a celebration of WDSD with adults from our community, where we celebrated by viewing\u00a0a variety of short films and other works of vibrant art. We\u00a0reflected on representation, inclusion, and the\u00a0unique\u00a0talents and achievements of those with Down\u00a0syndrome.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In the words of our\u00a0GiGi\u2019s\u00a0NYC Ambassador, Malik\u00a0Jabbaar,<\/p>\n<p>\u201cthe Community Chorus Concert was\u00a0a very happy\u00a0occasion as well as the interview with Positive Exposure. The Brooklyn Net\u2019s Academy Basketball Clinic was so cool especially since I love basketball.\u00a0Afterwards, I headed downtown to the Barclays Center to take photos while the stadium was lit up in Blue and Yellow. It\u00a0was a great way to end the evening.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>GiGi&#8217;s NYC is honored to have celebrated WDSD\u00a0with our\u00a0community and amazing partners\u00a0. We will continue\u00a0to build the skills of our community, recognize and celebrate the\u00a0achievements of the Down syndrome community at GiGi&#8217;s NYC, where the possibilities are endless. We thank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thank you for celebrating World Down Syndrome Day with us on March 21, 2021. Prior to 03.21.21 we recognized the\u00a0achievements of\u00a0people with Down syndrome\u00a0in our\u00a0community,\u00a0with\u00a0social media posts prior to and after\u00a0this special day. We are\u00a0grateful to YOU our\u00a0GiGi\u2019s\u00a0NYC community; by\u00a0showing\u00a0your support,\u00a0participating with your\u00a0families and friend in\u00a0\u00a0our events. The 2021 WDSD\u00a0theme was #CONNECT. We are\u00a0fortunate to&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":288,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wpo365_audiences":[],"wpo365_private":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-458062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/288"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458062\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}