Don’t Be Late
We recently asked a few past attendees of the "i have a Voice" Gala to write a post about their experience as an attendee. Our Site Coordinator's sister shared this amazing write up on her blog which is in true fashion about how she is ALWAYS late for everything!! Weddings...
10 Years of Volunteering
Saying goodbye is hard but we hope this isn’t a true goodbye! At the end of this year, 3 of our board members are cycling off the board. I believe they won’t truly go away and we will continue to see some of them at programming and special events. These...
2000 Hours of Achievement
As 2018 comes to a close, we want to thank all of you for your support of the Playhouse here in the Quad Cities. The Quad Cities is a great place to be and we are blessed with the support the community shows us each year. We have outstanding volunteers,...
How was your day?
School is back in full swing. Schedules are crazy, and you are trying to get everyone, including yourself, back into the school routine after the summer. There are lunches, homework, pick up, drop off and afterschool activities that must be figured out, that we sometimes wonder, where did my day...
Circle of Gratitude
As the 2018 car show season comes to a close, we would be amiss if we didn't take a moment to thank the local car clubs and the car show attendees for their support and generosity. We also wanted to highlight just one reason this community support has meant so...
Why $321?
If you follow our Facebook page or admire our photos on Instagram, you may have seen several posts congratulating teams for raising $321. What you may not know is why people are setting up teams and why they’re encouraged to raise such an unusual amount. The annual Superhero 5K, 1...
Strong Together: John Deere Touch a Tractor
On July 31, 2018 we had an event at John Deere Headquarters in Moline. An amazing John Deere employee, Felicia, reached out to us several months ago and was interested in having GiGi’s participants receive a private tour of John Deere Headquarters. We also would get to check out some...
#BestofAll Speech Moments
#BestofAll With the end of our Spring session for the Amina Grace Speech and Language Program, we wanted to take some time to look back at the amazing #BestofAll moments that happened throughout the last 3 sessions of this program. We were able to run the last 3 sessions due...
Run, dance, drive…oh my!
Does it seem like we are always fundraising? Well we are! GiGi’s is 100% privately funded by: private donations (one-time, monthly, annually, memorials) special event fundraisers (I have a Voice Gala, Superhero 5K Run and Walk) community fundraisers (dine to donate, car shows, poker run, concerts and more) sponsorships (gala,...
Safety and Water…Do Mix!
Teaching Safety Concepts: Hot Dangers are everywhere and we have questions all the time, how do we teach our child about danger? This can be an abstract concept and there are dangers everywhere, but what we don’t always realize, that when talking about things that are dangerous, our world is...
Amazing, Challenging, Refresing…
In the recent volunteer newsletter the volunteer spotlight featured a group of college students that have gone above and beyond for our local Playhouse over the past year or so. This is the same group of students that planned the 2018 World Down Syndrome Day celebration. We asked them to...
Paired Progressions
Being a part of an international network of Down Syndrome Achievement Centers has its perks! One of those perks being that we have brilliant minds within the network that are constantly researching, advocating, enhancing programs and more. One of the latest updates to our purposeful programs are Paired Progressions! We have always...