Two Chamber Reps Ran the GiGi's Playhouse 5K in Black Suits
(CLAIR | Simi Valley, CA) — Anthony Angelini and Vander Jordan ran Saturday's GiGi's 5K in black suits. The two Simi Valley Chamber of Commerce representatives joined runners, walkers, and families at Simi Valley City Hall on April 25 for the GiGi's Playhouse 5K — Dash for Down Syndrome, which started at 8:00 a.m. and wrapped around noon.
The race benefited GiGi's Playhouse Simi Valley, located in Suite H3, at the Simi Valley Town Center. The Simi Valley location opened in August 2024 as the 60th GiGi's location nationwide and Ventura County's first. Founder Nancy Gianni flew in for the ribbon cutting alongside her daughter GiGi, the namesake of the organization she started 21 years earlier in Chicago.
The Simi Valley Gigi's exists because two local moms decided it should. Kirsten Riddick and Cara Armstrong, both raising children with Down syndrome, met three months into the pandemic looking for a small social group for their kids. Research led them to GiGi's national model, and the small idea grew into a grassroots push. By 2022 they had a board of directors. In 2023, before the Playhouse even had a physical space, the Simi Valley team raised over $100,000 at their GiGiFIT Acceptance Challenge — the fourth largest GFAC fundraiser at any Playhouse in the country that year. An anonymous $100,000 donation helped close the gap to construction.
That history is, in part, why Saturday's 5K matters locally. The Simi Playhouse is new, but the need is old, and the programs run entirely on donations. GiGi's offers free tutoring, therapeutic services, fitness, career development, and social programs for individuals with Down syndrome from prenatal diagnosis through adulthood. Nothing costs the families a dollar. The organization is almost entirely volunteer-run and takes no government funding.
The Simi Valley event offered both a 5K and a 1-mile route. Anyone could take part — jogging, walking, rolling, pushing a stroller, or cheering from the sidelines. That's a standing rule for GiGi's events, anyone can participate.
Two chamber reps in suits at a 5K is the kind of thing people notice. What will you wear to turn heads for the cause next year?
The GiGi's 5K returns next spring at City Hall.