2025 Highlights & 3.21 Club
2025 is coming to a close soon, and here at GiGi’s Playhouse Quad Cities, we have so much to be thankful for this year. We wanted to share some highlights on our blog. Plus, we’re launching an all-new 3.21 Club for monthly donors.
2025 Highlights
During 2025, we logged over 5000 hours from participants and volunteers. That’s 5000 for each, not total! We consider those numbers a tremendous success! We were also successful in facilitating a transition in staffing by bringing on Nathan Bates as our Executive Director and having Pam Lynch take on a part-time position as our new Marketing & Event Coordinator. Early in the year, we were apprehensive about how this transition would play out, especially due to some circumstances out of our control, but we could not be happier with how things are “progressing.” That word will take us into a new year as you will see later in the blog. Ann Cobb & Anna Kronenberger remain in their positions and have overseen all the purposeful programs that we offered throughout the year! There were lots of #bestofall moments witnessed this year and you can read about many of them on previous blogs. Many thanks to all of the volunteers and supporters who make our programs and playhouse possible!
Four areas we would like to highlight from the current year are:
- Celebrating A Legacy – Pam Lynch was recognized with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the GiGi’s Annual Leadership Conference.
- Largest Single Donation of All Time – Hackers & Slackers raised $37,000 for our playhouse during their annual golf outing.
- Best of All Programs – In addition to all the favorite signature programs, we offered several all-new programs which included games groups, robotics, first aid & hygiene, and handwriting!
- Best of All Events – We debuted our first-ever Art Show with over 100 attendees celebrating and supporting the artistic talents of our participants and other community artists.
“Watching participants master handwriting skills, learn to take turns, and build self-care skills is just a glimpse of some of the #BestOfAll moments we witnessed this year!”
GiGi’s Playhouse Quad Cities Staff
Additional details on these highlights can be seen on our End of Year recap mailing linked here.
Now, back to the word “progressing.”
2026 will mark a pivotal milestone for GiGi’s Playhouse Quad Cities as we will celebrate our 15th Anniversary on October 1st. We will be spending the year celebrating a powerful legacy of success while preparing for an even brighter future.
This bright future is built on a foundation of excellence. In 2025, we were again recognized as a Standards of Excellence Champion, achieving a Center of Excellence rating in six of the eight national categories. This achievement proves that our big dreams are guided by responsible governance and dedication to the GiGi’s mission.
As we explained in a previous blog our word for 2025 was succession and our word for 2026 is ‘progressing.’
What does progressing look like? It means pushing forward to change the way the world views Down syndrome. We want 2026 to be the year our Playhouse dreams bigger than ever before. Those dreams include offering more programs, onboarding additional volunteers, growing in space and staff, offering transportation and so much more. We are laying the critical foundation to turn these ambitious dreams into reality for our participants and families.
These dreams are centered on growth—to serve more participants and offer even more purposeful programming. We provide these vital resources at no cost to families, so our progress relies on you. To grow, we need more volunteers, and we need committed financial partners.
YOU can help make some of our dreams come true by joining the all-new 3.21 Club!
3.21 Club
How do you join?
Visit the monthly giving page on our website linked here. Click on the “set up your monthly donation” button and make a $21 donation and choose the monthly option.
All 3.21 Club members will receive special recognition at the Playhouse, plus a club member exclusive item. (3.21 t-shirt or hat)
We have one final question for you: What dreams do you want to help make come true?
All donations are greatly appreciated, and we encourage you to consider making your end-of-year gift today even if a monthly recurring donation isn’t possible at this time.
If you’re unable to support financially, there are still many meaningful ways to help:
- Visit our website calendar to explore the wide variety of programs currently being offered.
- Interested in getting more involved? Visit our volunteer page to learn how to get started. We are always in need of program leaders, board members, and committee members.
- If donating or volunteering isn’t an option right now, explore other ways you can show your support by clicking here.
- Take a look at our wish list to see a list of items that help reduce programming and operational expenses.
Every form of support makes a difference—thank you for being part of our community, serving and supporting individuals with Down syndrome.
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