Love Our Team – Kathy Kuhnen

Today we’re doing two team highlights for the Love Our Team series.

First up….Kathy Kuhnen!

Kathy is a retired teacher from Erie Community School District. She serves on our board of managers and also as our literacy coordinator. She was a Reading Specialist for 35 years and loves that she can still use those skills to help our friends! (Plus, a few of her former students have come to GiGi’s to volunteer!)

Kathy has been part of our Playhouse as a donor since 2013 and has gradually become more involved. She became a tutor back in 2015, and started helping with literacy coordination in 2019, then joined the board in 2021. As part of her board duties she is serving as the chair person on our Governance Committee.

Kathy’s advice to new volunteers is:

“Being a volunteer at GiGi’s Playhouse Quad Cities is a rewarding experience! Your life will be enriched just as much as you will be enriching the lives of our friends and families at the Playhouse!”

When asked why she is involved with GiGi’s, she had this to say:

“My original ‘why’ was for my great niece Zoey. For the past 8 years, my ‘why’ has expanded to all the friends and families at GiGi’s. I’ve watched all the wonderful programs and events that GiGi’s offers and seeing the enjoyment, progress, and determination of our friends with Down syndrome make my involvement meaningful and worthwhile!”

She would “ABSOLUTELY!” recommend that others get involved!

When asked to pick one thing to say about GiGi’s, she said:

“I never would have thought that the rewards I GET from helping our friends would be more than the help I give.”

One fun fact that Kathy shared was that she and her husband and I love to go to Arizona for a few of the winter months for a lot of golf, pickleball, and warm weather. However, she did say that she actually misses the Playhouse when she’s gone!

We miss Kathy when she’s gone although she does stay in constant contact with us! Thank you, Kathy, for your time and passion.