Sock it to Social – DSAM 2025
Down Syndrome Awareness Month 2025 We’re kicking off Down Syndrome Awareness Month and celebrating 14 years of serving the Quad Cities. Plus, we’ll have a little fun on social media throughout the month. Parking Lot Party Wednesday, October 1, 5:30-7:30 pm Food trucks, fun, games, and friendship! Streets of Italy...
Have a Ball with GiGi’s
You are cordially invited to join us on Saturday, October 18th, for our annual fundraising gala. We will have a ball and hope you'll join us! Doors open at 5:30 pm for cocktail hour, followed by the program at 6:30 pm. The evening will feature inspiring words from our special...
August 2025 Best of All
The highlights below are just a few of the #bestofall moments we witnessed during August. Participant & Program Best of All The Teen Talk crew had an amazing time learning and practicing phone conversations at the last meeting. These participants called restaurants and practiced asking appropriate questions with good speech...
Rock Star Summer Session
We had a rock star one-on-one session this summer! 22 individuals participated in tutoring and/or speech this summer, with 30 sessions scheduled each week. At the end of the session, we gathered for a special Tutor Talk to celebrate and thank our amazing volunteer tutors. Over dinner, they shared their...
Ways to Support Grief
Grief and Down Syndrome: Understanding and Support Grief isn’t something most people like to talk about—but it’s something a few of our families are facing right now. Several in our community have recently lost loved ones, and we want to take this moment to shed light on how grief can...
July 2025 Best of All
The highlights below are just a few of the #bestofall moments we witnessed during July. Participant Best of All Our best of all spotlight this month goes to our young friends in Destination Discovery: Sports! During this four-week program, our friends learned to play different playground and gym-class games. They...
Why GiGi’s One-on-One Programs?
Exceptional Programs at No Cost At GiGi’s Playhouse, all programs are offered completely free of charge to families—but that doesn’t mean they’re free for us to provide. While “free” is sometimes associated with lower quality, that couldn’t be further from the truth at GiGi’s. Take our Amina Grace Speech &...
Welcome Nathan Bates – New Executive Director
Back in January, we shared the news that our beloved Site Director, Pam Lynch, would be stepping back after nine incredible years of leadership. (If you missed it, you can read the “This is Not Goodbye!” blog post linked here.) Since then, our team has been hard at work searching...
Summer Interns 2025
We're a little delayed in this blog post because the summer seems to be flying by in the blink of an eye. If you've been around the Playhouse this summer, you may have met one or more of our summer interns. We welcomed three new interns and welcomed back a...
Welcome to the Board, Maddie!
Please help us welcome our newest board member to the team here at GiGI's. Many of you may recognize her. She has been part of GiGI's since April 2022, when she first interned for us. Since then, she has continued to volunteer at events and programs. She recently interned again...
June 2025 Best of All
The highlights below are just a few of the #bestofall moments we witnessed this month. Sometimes it’s hard to choose what we highlight, especially when one of our large events takes place and we're overwhelmed with gratitude and appreciation! Participant Best of All This summer is Caleb's first time attending...
SUPER Thank You 2025
41 Fundraising Teams 40+ Volunteers 60+ Raffle Items 725+ Registrations $90,000+ Raised We say thank you dozens of times but it never feels like enough. Our 2025 GiGiFIT Acceptance Challenge -Superhero Run, walk, and Kids Dash was nothing short of AMAZING! We had the best weather anyone could ask for....