7 Highlights & 170 people! WDSD 2023 Recap
World Down Syndrome Day 2023 took our Playhouse by storm!
It began on March 18th with an awareness/celebration event held at Augustana College that hosted 125+ people enjoying bingo, b-bop (aka dancing), bake walk, tie dying socks, and so much more.
This event was made possible thanks to our Augustana interns, additional volunteers, and those that donated baked items, food, drinks, bingo prizes and door prizes.
- Red Lobster
- Lynne Suess
- Kathy Kuhnen
- Crumbl Cookies
- Nothing Bundt Cakes
- HyVee & Matt Karstens
- Augustana Center for Student Life
- Delta Chi Theta
- Chi Omega Gamma
- River Bend Gallery
- Ann Cobb
- Pam & Brian Lynch
- Anna & Ron Carmichael
We sure hope we didn’t miss anyone!
This event was so much fun! We met 3 new families, many new volunteers, and built awareness with the college students and staff too. There was also a special cake sale taking place at HyVee in Moline that day.
In the evening after the event, our Site Director met with the Moline Masons to receive a $2000 donation for the upcoming GiGiFIT Acceptance Challenge-Superhero Run & Walk. Not a WDSD activity BUT a win nonetheless.
The celebration continued into March 21st with an Open House at the Playhouse!
The highlights from the open house are:
- Our coffee club (aka group speech) had several special visitors to enjoy coffee with them! Some visited with the group while others played. 🙂
- Our self advocate board members helped give a tour to a group from Scott Community College!
- We met a family new to the area!
- A local news station stopped by. Thank you KWQC!
- A guest attended our board meeting.
- Friends and families just stopped in to say hi, enjoy some treats, and a few tie dyed socks too!
- A local elementary school dropped off a donation that was raised by selling special WDSD shirts.
Plus we met with the owner of Dave’s Coffee Cakes, who held the live cake sale fundraiser at HyVee on the 18th to receive a $425 check from the sale.
We’re sure we’re forgetting something as the day was busy with people coming and going all day.
WDSD 2023 by the numbers:
- Celebrated with 170+ people
- Met 4 new families
- Raised awareness with 20 WDSD kits going out into the community
- Brought awareness to 35 local college students (Augustana, Scott Community College, Blackhawk College)
- Unmeasured memories and inspiration
Thank you to the Quad Cities community for showing your love and support for GiGi’s and the families that we serve.
#WDSD2023 #Downsyndromeawareness #QuadCities #GiGisPlayhouse
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