Best of All June 2026

June started off on the right foot here at GiGi’s Playhouse Quad Cities with our annual 5K Run, 1 Mile Walk, and Kids Dash! Nearly 650 participants, volunteers, families, and supporters came together for a morning filled with fun, inspiration, and celebration.

We also kicked off many of our exciting summer programs, including literacy and math tutoring, speech and language therapy, GiGi’s Kitchen for Teens, Achievers for Adults, and more. Every program provides new opportunities for our participants to learn, grow, and achieve their own Best of All.

Below are just a few of the many Best of All moments we celebrated throughout the month of June!

Participant & Program Best of All

We love cheering our friends on at GiGi’s Playhouse Quad Cities. We try to celebrate the big and small wins, from trying new foods to taking the first steps toward adulthood and everything in between. Recently, we have been celebrating all sorts of progress.

Our teenage friends went outside their comfort zone and tried new foods during our GiGi’s Kitchen Teen program. They made from scratch a homemade Vinaigrette dressing, and tried vegetables they do not normally eat during the fourth week of the program. While Ranch still wins over their hearts, we are so proud of them for taking some “brave bites.”

One of our younger friends, Caleb, is really growing in participation and communication skills during Music Makers Kids. When Caleb first started attending programs at GiGi’s, he would only watch the other kids. Over time, he encouraged his older brother to try the activities. Now he is gleefully participating in music. He high-fives his friends, plays with the instruments, and laughs uproariously during every game of duck, duck, goose.

Volunteer Spotlight

Our volunteer spotlight this month also goes to some of our participants who have recently become volunteers!

GiGi’s Achievers gave back to our community recently by helping clean up some walkways and garden areas at the Quad City Botanical Center. They took turns sweeping and using a leaf blower – the leaf blower was a big hit! Afterward, they got to help release 6 monarch butterflies into the garden. There were smiles all around after they were done, and not just because they got Whitey’s ice cream afterward.

Perhaps the biggest step any of our participants took recently was becoming a GiGi’s volunteer. In the last year we have had several friends begin the process of training and becoming active volunteers. In June, Vada, completed her greeter training, and welcomed families into our LMNOP and Leaps and Bounds programs. In addition to helping families check in, she assisted with setting up, cleaning up and transitioning. Her Best of All may very well be ours too.

Playhouse Inspiration

The annual GiGi’s Playhouse Quad Cities 5K, 1 Mile Walk & Kids Dash is always full of inspiration! It’s a little like a family reunion, and seeing so many of our families, friends, volunteers, sponsors, and supporters reconnect is truly the best part of the day.

To us, it’s so much more than a fundraiser. It’s hearing friends squeal with excitement when they spot each other across the park. It’s witnessing the smiles, laughter, high-fives, hugs, and happy tears that remind us why we do what we do. Those moments make it one of our favorite days of the year.

If you’d like to relive this incredible day, be sure to check out our recap blog linked here. Thank you to everyone who helped make this event simply the best. We couldn’t do it without you! 💙💛

📸Photos from the day can also be seen on the blog linked above!

YOU can submit your Best of All stories and moments too!

Staff typically choose these stories, but we’d love to hear from you, too! If you see or hear something worth highlighting, please let us know!

Did you know you can easily share photos from programs with us by uploading them here? There are also flyers with a QR Code hanging around the playhouse.

309-762-7529 or email [email protected]

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