GiGi’s Playhouse Wausau Year in Review…What an Amazing Year!
2022 was a year of growth, achievements, and lots of hard work by volunteers, participants, and staff! So much happened, many being firsts but defintely not lasts. Among all the fun events, family parties at the Playhouse or in the community we cannot forget all the achievements made by participants and the over 2,200 hours of programming provided, Mom’s Coffee Talks, our Fantastic Friends getting out in the community, and the Playhouse giving back whether it be donations to the Humane Society or coffee and donutes to our friends at DCE Metro. We hope you enjoy looking back at some highlights!
January: We accepted a National level sponsorship for our 5K GLOW run from Connexus Cares for two years in a row!
February: During our first session of Literacy we had 16 students enrolled. Volunteers presented to Inclusa and we started a success Generation G campaign.
March: We celebrated World Down Syndrome Day at Rainbow Play Systems and received great media coverage! We participated in our FIRST Children’s Festival in Wausau. We created such a fun space that we were asked to create a sensory space for 2023!
April: We participated in Merrill’s Children’s Festival. Hosted a fun Easter egg hunt afternoon at the Playhouse. Had a fun group from Wausau Homes spend the day building a literacy closet. Started our FIRST Driveway Stencil Fundraiser and participated in our FIRST YMCA Healthy Kids Day! Wow, what a month!
May: We attended the Wausau Chamber’s Business Expo and hosted a service group from Liberty Mutual to help us prepare for our 5K.
June: Staff and two Youth Board members presented for the FIRST time to a school crowd at Marathon High School. We held our 2nd Annual 5K GLOW Fun Run/Walk and added some memorable new features like a Generation G heart painted on the lawn.
July: The Youth Board hosted their FIRST Hollywood themed dance event. Staff and Board member Dr. Kuklinski presented to 19 medical students at the Medical College of WI.
August: We hosted our 3rd annual End of Summer Tailgate Party and had some awesome friends party with us!
September: We held our 3rd annual Harvest Picnic and was able to do reserved tables which allowed us to have some business people come and see just what we are about and how amazing our participants are. We started our Kitchen pilot and paired it with our FIRST Parent Nutrition Education! We hosted our FIRST beautiful engagement party between Adam and Brianna! Another exciting month for sure!
October: We celebrated Down Syndrome Awareness Month with a full month of activities for families and our community including our FIRST ever dance recital! We had IncredibleBank service group help out around the Playhouse and shared with our community the approval of our FIRST employment based programming making us a pilot Playhouse in 2023!
November: We attended our annual National Leadership Conference and represented the small but mighty Playhouse we are!!!
December: We participated in our FIRST Holiday Parade and made our FIRST float! To end the year we held our 2nd Birthday Party/Holiday Party with Santa as our special guest.
Thank You for an amazing, accepting, inspiring, kick butt year!