There will be 35,000 local kids whose Christmas holiday is a little brighter this year because Disney World and its cast members united to donate to the annual U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots program. The brand new toys, games, books and plush dolls… Read More »Disney VoluntEARS and Mickey Donate 35,000 Toys to Local Kids
Big props go to the group of 50 Disney VoluntEARs who combined their excitement for Walt Disney Animation’s latest film with their enthusiasm for volunteer work by building a “Wreck-It Ralph” CANstruction for Second Harvest Food Bank in Central Florida. At the end of the… Read More »Cast Members Build Wreck-It Ralph out of Canned Food for a Good Cause
What good is a Boys & Girls Club without a place for the kids to play? More than 250 volunteers from the Pine Hills community, Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Florida, the non-profit KaBOOM!, and Disney lent some elbow grease toward building a new,… Read More »Disney VoluntEARS Build Safe Place to Play in Less Than a Day
The fun never stops when you’re a Disney Cast Member, especially when you’re raising money for a good cause. This last weekend, nearly 6,000 Walt Disney World VoluntEARS teamed up to extend their reach into local classrooms via the Disney Bowl-A-Thon. Event organizers anticipate the… Read More »Disney VoluntEARS raise $250,000 for Junior Achievement at Bowl-a-thon
if there is one thing you can say about Disney Parks, it’s that they have the best Cast Members. Take for instance, the Flashback tradition at Disneyland. On February 16 and 17, after California Adventure closed for the day, nearly 300 Cast Members representing the… Read More »Disneyland Cast Flashback for Charity
It was a huge day at EPCOT today. A world record setting canned-food sculpture, a new duet with Joe Jonas and Demi Lovato (more on that late tonight), and Chef Robert Irvine’s Dinner Impossible filming (again more on that later tonight). But the day was really about Disney’s amazing new promotion for its Give a Day, Get a Disney Day promotion for 2010.
Against the backdrop of a world-record sculpture of canned goods destined for food banks, Disney Parks officials on Thursday announced a major milestone with the “Give a Day, Get a Disney Day” program, a first-of-its-kind effort to help inspire 1 million people to perform volunteer service.
Since the program’s launch only six weeks ago, more than 600,000 people in the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada have volunteered or signed up for volunteer projects in their communities, announced Tom Staggs, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts.
“With the launch of our ‘Give a Day, Get a Disney Day’ program, we hoped to spark something truly special,” Staggs said. “But even we have been overwhelmed with the response.”
Disney originally announced that they would try to give away around 1 million tickets to volunteers. I don’t know if that means you need to sign up for a shift soon, or if they’ll extend the promotion throughout the year.
Canned-Food Structure Unveiled, Verified Largest-Ever by Guinness World Records®
As part of the event celebrating family volunteers and to dramatize the spirit of giving, Walt Disney World Resort on Thursday unveiled a mammoth structure of canned goods – food that will be donated to food banks in Orlando, Miami and Atlanta.
The canned food sculpture – titled “Celebrate Volunteers” – was revealed for media and guests at Epcot. Disney VoluntEARS shaped the sculpture with a larger-than-life Goofy, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Pluto – all sculpted out of cans. Goofy’s trademark hat consisted of cans of bread crumbs, for instance. Mickey’s famous head was shaped from cans of black olives, and cans of sliced pineapple made up Pluto’s eyes.
The cans represent approximately 70,000 meals, according to Dave Krepcho, president/CEO of Second Harvest of Central Florida. “Each can makes a difference in someone’s life who cannot afford this food,” he said. “Much of this food goes to children in need, working moms trying to provide, senior citizens coping on fixed incomes and people whose disabilities keep them from working.”
The spectacular, character-themed structure – consisting officially of 115,527 cans – was also a world record, according to Guinness World Records, the internationally recognized authority on record-breaking achievement. Guinness World Records Thursday authenticated the achievement as the Largest Canned Food Structure ever created, easily eclipsing the previous record of 54,527 cans set in June 2009 in New Zealand. More fun facts at the bottom of this post
Read More »‘Give a Day, Get a Disney Day’ Program Reaches 600,000 Volunteer Sign-Ups – and Counting!
Folks up north may laugh at us Central Floridians as we complain about temperatures in the 20s and 30s. But in general we lack the cold weather clothing needed to keep warm in those temperatures, which given time and exposure are dangerous to stay out… Read More »Disney Donates Warm Clothing and Blankets to the Homeless
Beginning this Friday (Jan. 8), Kermit, Miss Piggy and Sweetums will be featured in a pre-parade celebration at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom and at Disneyland in California. Muppets characters and parade dancers will join to celebrate volunteerism and honorary VoluntEARS, in theory guests who at… Read More »Give A Day, Get A Disney Day Muppet Promo