The Holiday Spirit

Every year, millions of children write letters to Santa. They tell him how good they’ve been, how they’ve been helping out their parents or being kind to their siblings and friends. They also include one or two requests (sometimes many more!) for toys or something else they’ve been hoping for. It’s a time-honored tradition and one which surely keeps the holiday spirit alive.

2017

This coming year we are so happy and proud to be opening our Down Syndrome Achievement Center here in San Diego (the first in California!). We can’t help but look ahead to next year’s Holiday Season. We know we will be writing many more letters to Santa with skills picked up in our free literacy programs. Exciting times are ahead, to say the least! This got us thinking…we almost forgot to write our letter to Santa!

Dear Santa:

This year we have been working very hard. We have made new friends who have supported us in ways we couldn’t have dreamed of! We had two very successful fundraisers. One in May, ‘Road to Opening Day‘, and one online, with our September’s ‘Believe in our Build‘ celebration. This was extra special since we were joined by Karen Gaffney. In October, we were also joined by our friends at Legoland to celebrate Down Syndrome Acceptance Month. It was such a fun day! If that wasn’t enough, in November we were able to attend the GiGi’s Playhouse National Conference. We met everyone who is behind this amazing organization and also got all the tools needed to make 2017 the best year yet!

In exchange for our hard work, we would like to ask for a few things. First and foremost, we would love to continue seeing acceptance and love surrounding the Down syndrome community. Our hearts are full learning of all the wonderful stories supporting individuals with Down syndrome. We also need a retail space so we can open our doors and offer our free programs and hold our social gatherings.  We figured since your elves would be off after the holidays, you can send some to volunteer with us, we’re a fun bunch, we promise! You can tell them to sign up here. Lastly, if you have anything extra left over, feel free to donate it here.

P.S. Don’t forget to Save the Date for our ‘i have a voice’ 2017 Benefit Cocktail Party on April 29th at Sparks Gallery.

Love Always,

GiGi’s San Diego