Participants Supporting Participants 

The End of a Session Celebration is a big deal around GiGi’s Playhouse! It’s a time to celebrate achievements and Best of Alls of not only our participants but also tutors and program leaders enrolled in our GiGiFIT, GiGi’s Kitchen, and one-on-one literacy or math tutoring programs.

But, for the Virtual Playhouse, there was a challenge! We wanted to send certificates of achievement to over 100 participants. As you can imagine, this is a huge job for one person – our Site Manager, Nicolette Moinet – from a home office! Thankfully, GiGi’s Playhouse Raleigh and the Virtual Playhouse had started a partnership earlier this year, and Nicolette had been visiting the Raleigh playhouse regularly.

When Nicolette shared about the upcoming celebration and over 100 certificates that needed to be sent throughout the USA and even worldwide (to Japan!!), Becky Timblin, Raleigh’s Adult Program Manager, had an idea. Together, our two playhouses could get the job done while supporting one of Raleigh’s local career development programs: GiGi Prep. GiGi Prep is a program in which participants learn job skills such as money management, customer service skills, team building, and more. This mailing project was a perfect opportunity to learn and apply new skills.  

Over the course of two days, the Raleigh GiGiPrep students worked closely with the Virtual and Raleigh staff to stuff and address all the envelopes! The Prep students saved the day! Nicolette walked out of the Raleigh Playhouse both with a heart full of gratitude and arms full of envelopes. 

This collaboration truly exemplifies many Best of Alls!

• Virtual participants completed their Spring programs.
• Raleigh participants learned new job skills and supported their peers by preparing certificates of achievement!
• Playhouses partnering with other playhouses!  

Our GiGi’s Network is mighty and the value of having relationships with other playhouses is undeniable. We all believe in this mission, and together, are changing the way the world views Down syndrome one day at a time.  

The end of session Virtual End of Session Celebration was a huge success, and it wouldn’t have happened without the hard work and collaboration of the GiGi Prep students and the Raleigh team.

Thank you, Raleigh team and GiGi Prep students! You are so very appreciated.