Big Changes at GiGi’s Playhouse Wausau!

Please join us in congratulating Erica Erdman in her new role at GiGi’s Playhouse Wausau as our Playhouse Manager, starting February 28!  

Erica has been an active member of our Wausau team for over five years as a key volunteer, from organizing the start-up committee to leading the Board.  She embodies the GiGi’s core values: always bringing enthusiasm and positive energy to her work, always looking to improve in all that we do (best of all), always working hard to get things done and blast through barriers, serving our local community while leveraging the power of the GiGi’s network, and most of all — belief in our participants, belief in our mission, belief that we can achieve all we set out to achieve!   

Most of you have already met Erica and many know her well from Playhouse visits and media coverage. Erica is the driving force behind GiGi’s Playhouse in North Central Wisconsin. She is a native of the area and has worked in the non-profit community serving the developmentally disabled, mentally ill, and unemployed populations for over 10 years. She received a BA in Psychology from UWSP with a focus in Human Services along with a BA in Art with an emphasis in glass and sculpture. Her organization skills, passion and creativity are evident throughout our Playhouse, events and programming!   

Erica developed a strong sense of devotion to the advocacy needs of those in the Down syndrome community when her son, Braxton was born 7 years ago. Because Braxton wears his diagnosis on his face, she wanted more than just community awareness, she wanted genuine acceptance of him and felt the platform GiGi’s provided would support this shift in community perceptions of those with Down syndrome. Erica is grateful and humbled by the support provided to GiGi’s Playhouse Wausau by all of the participants, families, volunteers and community members!  

Erica is a natural choice for the position of Playhouse Manager. She has been leading, organizing and maintaining the Playhouse for us on a volunteer basis since our opening in December of 2020, when she was named recipient of the WAOW Jefferson Award for her impact on the community as founder of GiGi’s Playhouse Wausau.  

Among her many responsibilities, Erica will continue to oversee the volunteer and program management, administration and office tasks, marketing and communications, stewardship and outreach. This is an exciting progression for our Playhouse to provide participants, volunteers and visitors with a more consistent schedule of office hours and the devotion of a dedicated full-time staff person!  

With Erica’s transition to Playhouse Manager, we also welcome Nicole Stangl from Ruder Ware to the role of acting President of our local Board of Managers. Nicole has been a board member since March 2021.  

From the Wausau Board of Managers 

Nicole Stangl, President 

Rebecca Bearjar, Treasurer 

Dawn Follendorf, Secretary 

Cory Durbin, Program Coordinator 

Allison Vlietstra, Program Coordinator 

Jaci McKamey, Literacy Coordinator 

Louise Wolf, Families Lead 

Desirae Weller, Board Member 

Leslie Keeffe, Program Coordinato 

Melissa Baldwin, Self-Advocacy Ambassador 

Support for this project was provided through the B.A. & Esther Greenheck Foundation.