January 2025 Best of All

January is always hard because everyone is getting back into the swing of things after the holidays. This year, we kicked off the year with lots of great programs including some we’ve never offered before! Below are just some of the Best of All moments that we picked to highlight!

Participant Best of All

Back in October at the gala, we auctioned off a special Friendsgiving meal for up to 12 friends. The meal was to be held at the Playhouse and prepared by our Site Director Pam, and her husband Brian, along with a few GiGi’s participants who had recently completed the Achievers program. Christy and Luke (sadly Lisa was under the weather) were happy to be part of the day and they completed all assigned tasks without hesitation. They prepared salads, the veggies, and assembled the cracker tray too. They helped greet guests, served meals, bussed the tables, and so much more! The guests were smiling from ear to ear the entire time as were the participants!

Volunteer Spotlight

Fantastic Friends: Games Group had such a great time this month. They laughed while they learned new games and used their social, speech, literacy, math, and fine motor skills. There may have been some trash talking but it was all in good fun. Everyone had so much fun and the hour flew by. There was so much laughter that Ms. Ann had to ask them to quiet down because they were just outside her office. Mathew and Luke tried to get the best of the volunteers Maryann, Katelyn, Kayla, and Isabelle. Speaking of volunteers, this group of ladies thoroughly enjoyed their time with the participants, and several will be back for the teenage games group program coming up in February.

Playhouse Inspiration

We offered our first-ever pop-up program in Galesburg, IL.  Galesburg is about an hour south of our Playhouse, but we have many families that live down that way or even farther. Late last year, we applied for and received a small grant from the Galesburg Community Foundation to make this possible. We had good attendance and met several families whom we’d never met before. They were all happy to be there and participants had a great time creating snow/ice sensory bags, playing in the sandbox, and even having a snow fight. They especially loved ganging up on Ms. Pam during the snowball fight.

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!

309-762-7529 or email quadcities@gigisplayhouse.org

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