{"id":18600,"date":"2020-07-23T09:05:24","date_gmt":"2020-07-23T14:05:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/twincities\/?p=18600"},"modified":"2020-07-23T09:05:24","modified_gmt":"2020-07-23T14:05:24","slug":"stacey-volunteer-spotlight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/twincities\/uncategorized\/stacey-volunteer-spotlight","title":{"rendered":"Stacey – Volunteer Spotlight"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Stacey, a Physical Therapist, found out about GiGi\u2019s Playhouse Twin Cities from our Speech Language Pathologist volunteer, Rae, raving about GiGi\u2019s at her daytime job. (Shout out to Rae for always being an ambassador for GiGi\u2019s in our community, all the time!) In no time, Rae put together a meeting with Santi, Program Manager, Stacey, and Rae, at a coffee shop, this past winter on a very snowy day, to discuss GiGi\u2019s Playhouse Twin Cities.<\/p>\n

After discussing GiGi\u2019s mission, what we do, and who we are, we quickly jumped into a discussion about our need for a Physical Therapist to help pilot the GiGiFIT program at GiGi\u2019s Twin Cities. We did an overview of the program. Our FREE GiGiFIT programs combine physical therapy with a strong\u00a0fitness\u202ffocus. The ultimate goal of\u00a0GiGiFIt is to find success<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0improved<\/strong>\u00a0movement <\/strong>for all participants. GiGiFIT was created in collaboration with skilled Physical Therapists who work specifically with individuals with Down syndrome. The GiGiFIT programs are designed to address common issues for individuals with Down syndrome including hypotonia, excessive joint laxity, and decreased balance. Every GiGiFIT program is safe, effective, and progressive. GiGiFIT helps participants build strength, endurance, power, joint stability, balance, and movement control. GiGiFIT empowers participants to be more independent and confident in their abilities while improving their overall health and wellness.<\/p>\n

We discussed our big dreams for GiGi\u2019s Playhouse Twin Cities, that we\u2019d like to start small, with a single group in a single age range \u2013 and then eventually expand this program over time to cover all age groups from infants through adults. As we discussed our big dreams, Stacey decided that very moment at the coffee shop, that she was interested in learning more, and getting involved. She quickly dropped by later this winter to visit us at our playhouse, so that she could learn even more about what our organization does, and who we are.<\/p>\n

Stacey took time to study and do all the video trainings for GiGiFIT amongst her very busy life which includes: helping her daughter complete her senior year in high school and prepare to go to college this fall, working as a Physical Therapist for Early Intervention for Birth to Three in one of our metro area public school districts, as well as being a professor at an area university. In January and February, we began to discuss plans to pilot a program this fall while figuring out more logistics this summer. Then COVID happened in March, and Stacey stepped up immediately, this summer, to start piloting GiGiFIT Infants and Toddlers once a month with our 0-6 year olds, and piloting GiGiFIT Kids with our Kids Club (7-12 year olds) once a month.<\/p>\n

We are excited to continue to partner with Stacey, hopefully this upcoming year, where we can continue to fulfill our big dreams one step at a time \u2013 even though these dreams may look much differently than we originally thought those dreams looked like back this past winter, on that snowy day. It warms our heart to think about all the possibilities for GiGiFIT that may now be available to our community in the future due to Stacey\u2019s dedication, professional experience, and compassion.<\/p>\n

Thank you Stacey for being one of our trailblazers in both virtual programming for GiGi\u2019s Playhouse Twin Cities and for being the first to offer this amazing GiGiFIT program to our community this summer. It is an honor to come across a brand-new volunteer willing to do whatever is needed to lead a pilot for a \u00a0program so thoughtfully, while bringing their special expertise and passions to this work. We are so lucky to have Stacey be part of our GiGi\u2019s Playhouse Twin Cities community. We look forward to what new adventures we can create together in the future. Thank you Stacey for your contributions already to GiGi\u2019s Playhouse Twin Cities \u2013 especially at this time!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stacey, a Physical Therapist, found out about GiGi\u2019s Playhouse Twin Cities from our Speech Language Pathologist volunteer, Rae, raving about GiGi\u2019s at her daytime job. (Shout out to Rae for always being an ambassador for GiGi\u2019s in our community, all the time!) In no time, Rae put together a meeting with Santi, Program Manager, Stacey,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[925,205,926],"class_list":["post-18600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-leadership","tag-strongertogether","tag-volunteers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/twincities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/twincities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/twincities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/twincities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/twincities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/twincities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18600\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/twincities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/twincities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/twincities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}