#MyDsStory is a campaign to share how Down syndrome has impacted your life while also raising critical funds needed to provide FREE purposeful programs and expand our reach at GiGi’s Playhouse McHenry County.

One of our favorite experiences at GiGi's is being witness to the magic that happens when a member of our community gets to actually meet and interact with the participants in our programs. It brings to mind this year’s Fashion Show. If you weren’t there, we did things a little different and invited the McHenry County Sheriff, Algonquin Fire District and LITH Police to attend and escort our models down the runway. They agreed to attend for the “show” part of our event because they are just wonderful people, but once they met our models, they spent hours with us and asked if they could please do it again! The interactions we watched between our first responders and our models was so heartwarming that there aren’t even words to describe it. We want to you to help us create this connection within our larger community by sharing your Down syndrome story (#mydsstory) with your network and their network and so on! The more educated and aware those around us are, the more likely they are to be more accepting and more involved with not only our Playhouse, but in celebration of the diversity everywhere.

Impact of Support: It is no secret that we’ve struggled financially after all of the challenges of COVID and this year our Board and Staff are committed to bringing back ALL our programs, expanding our pool of volunteers so we can offer more tutoring sessions, bringing back families that haven’t returned since the shut down as well as introducing ourselves to new individuals in the community that would benefits from our free programs and services. The success of this peer-to-peer fundraiser will help us to spread the word about Down syndrome awareness within our community, as well as raising the funds necessary to expand our program offerings, including our speech program (which is one of our biggest expenses but so valuable to our families!)

#MyDsStory is for everyone! Whether you are an individual with Down syndrome, family, community member or volunteer, you have a story to share. Create your fundraising page, share your story and share the link to your fundraising page with family and friends. Sharing your link via Social Media is an excellent way to boost fundraising.

This campaign will kick off on November 14th as a way to celebrate Down Syndrome Awareness Month and will run through December 31, 2023. It’s the perfect time to leverage this campaign for year-end giving.

We’re also going to have awesome prizes for the following categories:

First person to reach $500 in donations

The person that gets the most individual donations

The person that raises the most money

Anyone that raises over $1500 (we will have a life-size wall or window decal of your family member/ friend that has Down syndrome made that will be placed in our Playhouse for all of 2024!)

McHenry County #MyDsStory 2023 supporting GiGi's Playhouse McHenry County

McHenry County #MyDsStory 2023

McHenry County #MyDsStory 2023 supporting GiGi's Playhouse McHenry County