{"id":26546,"date":"2021-08-15T08:00:10","date_gmt":"2021-08-15T12:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/raleigh\/?p=26546"},"modified":"2021-07-29T14:59:06","modified_gmt":"2021-07-29T18:59:06","slug":"freely-changing-lives-by-giving-their-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/raleigh\/freely-changing-lives-by-giving-their-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Freely changing lives by giving their time!"},"content":{"rendered":"

The definition of\u00a0a v<\/span>olunteer is\u00a0<\/span>\u201c<\/span><\/i>a person who freely offers to take part in an enterprise or undertake a task.<\/span><\/i>\u201d\u00a0Yes, you read that right;\u00a0<\/span>FREELY\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/b>offers to take part in\u00a0a task. A volunteer gives up their time, energy, and so many other priceless parts of themselves to help\u00a0a cause.\u00a0GiGi\u2019s\u00a0is a 99% Volunteer run\u00a0organization\u00a0which means that there are 1,000\u2019s of people across the nation\u00a0<\/span>FREELY<\/span><\/i><\/b>\u00a0offering their time to help\u00a0those with Down\u00a0syndrome. They are spreading a message of acceptance with every smile they give, every lesson they teach, every question they answer, and every loving conversation they have with\u00a0our\u00a0families\u00a0in communities all over the United States (and one in Mexico!). It\u2019s nothing short of a\u00a0mind-blowing realization of how kind-hearted so many people are to\u00a0freely\u00a0give of themselves in this way\u00a0to\u00a0GiGi\u2019s\u00a0mission.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To\u00a0better understand the minds of our selfless volunteers here at the Raleigh playhouse we will be interviewing some of them and giving them an opportunity to tell you, the curious reader, why\u00a0volunteering at\u00a0GiGi\u2019s\u00a0is something they are\u00a0<\/span>FREELY<\/span><\/i><\/b>\u00a0choosing to do\u00a0and why they keep coming back.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Kellie and Ellery\u00a0<\/span>Huffman<\/span> have been volunteering at GiGi\u2019s for 2 years<\/span>.\u00a0\u00a0They got involved because they<\/span> joined NCL (a mother-daughter volunteer organization, National Charity Leagure) and another mother\/daughter pair asked them if they wanted to volunteer at GiGi’s. Both of them love being around children, so this seemed like a perfect fit.<\/span>\u00a0They<\/span>\u00a0started out at Destination Discovery, ages 5+ where they\u00a0planned different activities and stations for the\u00a0participants\u00a0to\u00a0partake in.\u00a0They\u00a0then started planning and working with the younger friends\u00a0in Leaps & Bounds, ages 3-6\u00a0while\u00a0parents got to interact with other parents\u00a0and\u00a0share resources,\u00a0talk, and make new connections.\u00a0During Covid,\u00a0they volunteered with\u00a0virtual programs.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing how happy the kids are when you are with them is my favorite part. The impact I see from our time spent volunteering is that parents get to connect with other parents of kids with Down syndrome, and seeing the kids get to learn new things every time they come to an activity.\u00a0 Our friends with Down syndrome also get to spend time with peers who are the same age, both groups (kids and volunteers) get to hang out, have fun, and learn from each other. I want everyone to know that people with Down syndrome shouldn’t be treated as less than someone else. They are still smart, caring, funny individuals- they just might need a little extra help to do something. In the end, they are still people, just like everyone else around us.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Thank\u00a0you Kellie and Ellery\u00a0for\u00a0<\/span>FREELY\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/b>giving your time, energy, and hearts to the task at hand at\u00a0GiGi\u2019s\u00a0Playhouse, which is to\u00a0change the way the world views Down syndrome and to send a global message of acceptance for all.\u00a0You both are truly living that mission each day.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Don’t miss out on the incredible stories and work that happens at GiGi’s Playhouse Raleigh! Sign up for our E-NEWSLETTER here<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The definition of\u00a0a volunteer is\u00a0\u201ca person who freely offers to take part in an enterprise or undertake a task.\u201d\u00a0Yes, you read that right;\u00a0FREELY\u00a0offers to take part in\u00a0a task. A volunteer gives up their time, energy, and so many other priceless parts of themselves to help\u00a0a cause.\u00a0GiGi\u2019s\u00a0is a 99% Volunteer run\u00a0organization\u00a0which means that there are 1,000\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1487,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436,434,438],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advocacy","category-community","category-volunteers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/raleigh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/raleigh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/raleigh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/raleigh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1487"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/raleigh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/raleigh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26546\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/raleigh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/raleigh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/raleigh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}