Meet the Leaders

Gwen Leyden

Chicktime Papillion Founder & Leader

papillion@chicktime.com

Why I serve a co-leadership role with Chicktime:

I am a single mother of 2 absolutely amazing children.  Child abuse is something that has personally impacted our lives in the last few years.  It’s an impact that does not quickly or easily go away.  We all want to know “Why?  Why did this happen to my chid(ren)?”  That is an answer many of us will never get but the need for that answer was consuming me.  I needed to find an outlet and I came across Chicktime.  There are two main reasons as to why I wanted to serve with Chicktime.  I know the toll it can take on a parent helping a child overcome their experiences.  On the inside you are screaming as loudly as possible but on the outside you are smiling and going about your day because you have little ones that need your strength and your support.  My hope is for these events to give parents a place to have a voice.  Even if you don’t say a word about your situation just being around others that understand can be so powerful.  I want parents to be able to just breathe, have fun, meet new people, learn something new, get pampered and do that crazy thing people talk about, relax!  I want them to do all of this while their child gets to also have fun in a SAFE environment.

My second reasoning is providing a place where children can feel safe.  From my experience, one of the biggest traumas to a child after child abuse is the loss of safety.  I want children to feel safe to play and interact with other kids.  I want them to learn that not all adults are unsafe.

My Passions and gifts:

I used to think the answer to this question was helping others but I’ve realized my passion is making people laugh.  We all have a story, a struggle, baggage.  While we can’t always fix a person’s situation if I can just, for that moment, make someone laugh and forget their pain that brings me joy.

Hobbies and Interests:

Do my kids count as a hobby? Ha.  My children keep me very busy between sports, school activities, etc.  I do love anything fitness/nutrition related.  On weekends my kids and I setup fun circuits that we can do together.  We go for a lot of walks, bike rides and we love our movies nights.  We are also going to attempt some fun family runs this year.