GiGi\u2019s Playhouse says more help is needed<\/a> now to keep its programs open to the families who rely on them.\u00a0It\u2019s 99% volunteer run and right now, they\u2019re having to waitlist families for some of their most popular programs.\u00a0They say they hate having to turn anyone away, so they\u2019re hoping the community steps up to help out.<\/p>\nValencia Trujillo is only two years old, and she\u2019s spent a good part of her two years at GiGi\u2019s Playhouse.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you first have a child with Down syndrome, and you get that diagnosis, you kind of don\u2019t know what to do, you don\u2019t know what resources are out there, what support there is, and everyone was telling us, you have to go check out GiGi\u2019s,\u201d said Daniel Trujillo, Valencia\u2019s dad.<\/p>\n
Daniel said Valencia has made new friends through the programs at GiGi\u2019s, and he\u2019s amazed by her progress.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s learned to be a lot more social because she\u2019s with peers who are like her, same age, also with Down syndrome or autism, and just seeing her interact with them and seeing that there are other kids just like her,\u201d said Daniel.<\/p>\n
GiGi\u2019s Playhouse offers programs for all ages \u2014 from infants to adults, specializing in therapies and educational programs for people with Down syndrome and other special needs \u2014 all offered to families at no cost. Right now, they\u2019re in desperate need of volunteers.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur adults are by far our biggest population and we are having to waitlist individuals because our programs, on Saturday in particular, have grown exponentially,\u201d said Program and Volunteer Coordinator Gregory Voda.<\/p>\n
Voda says there\u2019s no aging out at GiGi\u2019s, and the waitlist continues growing.\u00a0Daniel says he\u2019s thankful Valencia got in when she did, and he encourages anyone with extra time to consider becoming a GiGi\u2019s volunteer.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you take one look at the smile on some of these kids\u2019 faces, and how much they love the activities and they love all the classes and everything they get to learn here, I think that look would tell you everything you need to know.\u00a0It\u2019s such a worthwhile cause,\u201d said Daniel.<\/p>\n
Voda says you don\u2019t need to have any special skills or certifications to volunteer \u2014 guides are provided for the programs, and there are all sorts of positions they need filled right now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014\u00a0A Tampa nonprofit that provides free educational and therapeutic programs for individuals with Down syndrome says…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[767,5711,276,115,135,137,136,835],"class_list":{"0":"post-145381","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-app-community","9":"tag-fallon-silcox","10":"tag-hillsborough-county","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-tampa","13":"tag-tampa-headlines","14":"tag-tampa-news","15":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}