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<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nAshley: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She and her husband have two children, Carson (7) and Caroline (4), along with two Olde English Bulldogs, Liberty and Howie, and 13 chickens! She has been working as a Speech Language Pathologist for the past 14 years, spending the last 11 school years with BOCES.\u00a0They are\u00a0big fans of all Philly sports\u2014Go Birds! She started volunteering at GiGi\u2019s Playhouse late this summer and currently serve as the Program Lead for LMNOP. As a Speech Language Pathologist, She is always looking for ways to support communication, so when she learned there was an opportunity to lead LMNOP\u2014a program once led by friends of hers\u2014She jumped right in. Her favorite part of volunteering at GiGi\u2019s is seeing the smiling faces of the kids and families who come to events. One of the most rewarding moments for her has been watching parents connect and being a part of supporting their child\u2019s development. For anyone considering volunteering, She would say \u201cgo for it!\u201d It\u2019s okay if you can\u2019t commit to something concrete\u2014there\u2019s truly something for everyone, whether you want to be front and center or help behind the scenes. She is looking forward to many more LMNOP classes and continuing to see communication grow!\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dana: <\/p>\n\n\n\n She is currently a graduate student at Syracuse University in her final semester of the Master\u2019s program in Speech-Language Pathology. Originally from Northern California, she now lives in Syracuse with her husband and her two cats, Margaery and Gigabyte. In her free time, she loves to sing, bike, paint her nails, and play with her cats! She\u00a0began volunteering at GiGi\u2019s Playhouse this September and is\u00a0involved with LMNOP (Language, Music, N Our Peeps) twice a month, as well as the Amina Grace Speech and Language program, where she sees clients weekly. She was inspired to volunteer because she wanted the opportunity to meet more people of all ages with Down syndrome and learn how Speech-Language Pathologists can best support their communication and learning. What she enjoys most about GiGi\u2019s Playhouse is how supportive and inclusive everyone is\u2014people of all abilities and communication styles are welcomed and celebrated. Every milestone, no matter how big or small, is treated as an achievement. One of her favorite moments has been when her 3-year-old client spontaneously gives her hugs\u2014it melts her heart every time! It reminds her that while they are working on speech and language, the most important thing is making it fun and meaningful. For anyone considering volunteering at GiGi\u2019s Playhouse, she would say \u201cgo for it\u2014you\u2019ll have an incredibly rewarding experience and see firsthand the positive impact you can have on others, and the impact they\u2019ll have on you.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ashley and Dana were instrumental is starting LMNOP Back up again. Their enthusiasm, experience and desire to see people succeed are what makes them so special. Read a little bit about both of them below! A huge thank-you to these wonderful ladies for everything you do. Our programming wouldn\u2019t be possible without our dedicated volunteers…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28492,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-141738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/syracuse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/syracuse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/syracuse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/syracuse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28492"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/syracuse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/syracuse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141738\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/syracuse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/syracuse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/syracuse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n