hi all! this post is terribly late, but last week i got the opportunity to go volunteer at the give kids the world village here in orlando and work with the terminally ill children that get to come to disney world thanks to the make a wish foundation!
so every sunday and wednesday the college program buses kids over to the make a wish village to spend about 4 hours with the kids and their families. i went on a wednesday, so the activity was 'kids night out'. the parents drop off the kids (the sick kids and their siblings, whoever wants to participate) at about 5 o'clock for a night of fun. they get to pick a 'best friend' for the night (one of us 'voluntears') and we have lots of fun!
so we first arrived at the village and it is amazing. the families stay in these brightly colored cottages on perfectly manicured streets surrounded by fairytale themed amusements. mini golf, a princess spa, remote controlled boats on a little lake, unlimited ice cream parlor, it's amazing. there were about a dozen 'voluntears' from the college program, and about 20 other adult volunteers that we combined with. i think they were just tourists visiting the orlando area that took time to serve, because they were from all around the country. we were briefed about what was going to take place that night, then taken to the recreation room to meet our new best friend!
the process of picking a best friend is a lot like picking gym teams in elementary school. it is pretty funny. so all the kids walk in, and if they see a volunteer they like, you get picked! if you don't get picked by a child you serve food the whole night. kind of funny. but either way it is a great way to serve!! i got lucky and was picked! i didn't think i would be picked. it was adorable to watch the little kids come in. you can tell who some of the sick ones are, with their fragile little bodies or they shiny bald heads, but some kids you can't tell! and we aren't allowed to ask, this is their time to get away from the hospitals and questions, so the whole night you might never know if you are with a healthy kid or not! kind of crazy to think about, but it is for the best i think. that way you treat every kid the same! i didn't know for a majority of the night but it turned out that my best friend, hannah, was actually here because her 5 year old sister, JanaRae (cutest little thing ever) has critical heart problems.
Hannah was great! she was a spunky 13 year old from Montana who dont talk english so good. hahah. she was funny! so first we just do whatever your best friend wants to do in the rec room. they have lots of arcade games, bumper cars and boats and trainsets and lots of stuff for little ones like puzzles and plushes. basically anything a kid could dream of. pool, big screen tvs, etc. Hannah wanted to play on the xbox so we did some car races for a while. as we were sitting there she really started opening up to me. it is funny to hear the heartaches of a 13 year old girl. she loves her boyfriend. she hates her mom because she doesnt have a cellphone. her best friend isn't talking to her because she has a crush on her boyfriend. all of lifes most complex problems :) i think she just wanted someone to listen so thats what i did! some good girl talk.
after that we had dinner! it is all inclusive and they had tons of stuff. we had chicken nuggets and fries and they of course had the unlimited ice cream bar available. this is when i got to meet hannah's little sister, JanaRae, and her older sister, who was best friends with my roommate Brittany for the night. they also had two little brothers who were participating. they were all so cute.
after dinner was my favorite part of the night, village idol! all the kids had the choice to sign up to perform a talent of their choice for everyone. it was adorable. the kids who didn't want to perform got to be judges and gave the cutest feedback. ah. it was just adorable. anyways. Hannah was really scared, but about halfway through she decided she wanted to sing! there was a BIG catch though, she would only do it if i did it too. hahaha. how do you say no to that?! those of you that know me well know that i am not a stage performer, let alone a singer. i was soooo not down to do this. but this is make a wish, you can't let them down! so you best believe i got up there on stage and sang selena gomez like a boss!! hahaha. she did great and you couldn't really hear me so i'd say it was a success! and she was super happy that she did it, and everyone was really encouraging to her and said she was gonna be a rockstar someday... anyways it was great. the kids loved loved loved it!
after that we delivered the kids back to their parents! it was a great night! i know this was a terrible summary, i am pretty delirious right now (i am so sick, nyquil is my bff at the moment) but i am so glad brittany convinced me to go. there's some quote about how serving someone really is more beneficial to you than the person you are serving, and it is so true!! so basically, everyone go out and serve someone today!!! and if you have the opportunity, make a contribution to the make a wish foundation! they are amazing!
love to all :)
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Monday, October 1, 2012
2 weeks away from "home"
hello all!
so these past two weeks i have been away from my "home" of fantasyland! last week i was in UTAH! and this week i have been deployed to work in downtown disney!
so last wednesday i texted my dad to say that i missed him and i hoped that he had a good day at work. pretty soon after i sent the text he called me and said "when can you come home?" so i am guessing he was missing me just a little :) i said that i wasn't really sure... it is pretty hard for me to get work off. he said that this weekend (now last weekend) would be great because it was amanda's birthday, he had work off, and he was going boating. always the boating. hahaha. but anyways, i knew that a lot of part-time people were really fighting to get hours, so i said i would call him back in a little and see what i could do. ten minutes later i had five days off and a potential plane ticket! and by 10 am the next morning i was in salt lake! THANK YOU DAD!
I had an amazing week back home and i seriously miss utah so much. i had gotten over the homesickness but now it is definitely back. poop. haha. Me and dad weren't able to pull off a plan so that we could surprise mom, but i did get to surprise amanda! her last region tennis match was at roy the day i got to utah so she saw me for the first time in the stands for her last high school game! i was worried i would throw off her groove but she played so good and ended up winning! go amanda! i also got to see her play in her region tournament which she did so well in... i am so proud of you amanda! i am so glad i got to see her play tennis because i missed all of her varsity time last year even though i was just in provo. for her birthday we spent the night at the grand america and shopped at city creek! we had so much fun! i freaking love the grand! we have stopped going at christmas but i think we will start again after this trip :)
the night we were in salt lake was also miss mackynzie's birthday party in provo so i drove down there and partied with my BYU ladies for a night! oh my goodness... I MISS BYU! I cannot wait to go back there in January! i just love the people there and the atmosphere and yeah. judge me! i love it! back in logan i got to see all my friends, eat betos, wear cozy clothes and not sweat to death.. it was the best! one of my very favorite things was the last day i was in town me and amanda drove up logan canyon to get raspberry shakes. it was so beautiful. oh my gosh i want to cry when i think of it. we made a stop at beaver and it had just rained a little bit... it smelled so good, the weather was perfect, and the leaves were sooo pretty. i have decided logan canyon is seriously my heaven on earth. i miss it like crazy. oh! almost forgot. i also got to go to the logan high homecoming game. super senior? never! go grizz! it was great :) (we won, duh.)
so after a lovely flight in first class (thank you delta american express!) and some held back tears on the cache valley express i was back in orlando. as soon as i got to wdw property i headed over to downtown disney costuming! had to get 2 new costumes for the shops where i am working which are D Street and the Disney Quest Emporium on the west side. oh my goodness. they are ugly. hahaha.
so D Street is like the hip adult apparel store. we have lots of art and star wars and marvel and stuff like that. it's also the headquarters for the vinylmation collectables. i had no idea what i was doing with those because i am only familiar with pin trading in fantasyland, but it is pretty similar. they come in sets... but there's a lot more mystery to it. there is also a lot of one-of-a-kind vinylmations. but yeah so basically it's really expensive and i would not suggest getting into it. there are some people that FREAK out about it. right when i came in for my shift one girl came in with this fancy shoe holder thing she converted to a vinylmation holder.. she had 48 in there! and these things aren't that small! so yeah we have a little mystery cupboard we trade with and there are all these rules cause people try and cheat the system and yeah. good stuff!
at d street there is also a cart i have to work, not too bad. my favorite position was probably the "create your own" table. we give little kids blank pieces of paper in the shape of a vinylmation and they color it. simple, but they really like it. when they are done we have them sign their name and hang it up on the wall for everyone to see! good stuff.
oh i almost forgot. this weekend in downtown disney was the frankenweenie weekend. it's the new tim burton movie coming out. d street was also the headquarters for all of that shiz so we had some super weird people coming in. sorry to be stereotyping but a lot of people who like that stuff are straight up scary. hahaha. but they had a meet and greet with jack and sally, so people were FREAKING out. it was the hugest line i have ever seen for a character, and i've seen lots. also there was a picture spot in some fake pet cemetery and special screenings at the AMC of other tim burton movies. so yeah. woo hoo.
so today I was in Disney Quest! Disney Quest is the interactive theme park located in downtown disney. the "emporium" is the exit shop for it. today. was. so. slow. and i worked for 10 hours! that is the longest shift i have ever had! oh my goodness! but i lived. there is nothing too interesting about it, except i did get rotated up to the 'gallery' once. i wasn't supposed to but i guess they were short or something? the gallery is actually in disney quest and you have to help with the rides a little bit. so as i said they are interactive so you get to create almost everything you do. so at the gallery you can boy a toy you designed, buy a dvd of you riding a ride you created, burn a cd of a song you made, or buy the drawing of a character you learned to draw in our little lessons. it was cool, but i literally sold one thing the whole time. so slow. but i guess it does do pretty well? i just had a slow day. while i was working there i met this really sweet lady named Patty. unlike so many people that work at disney on the 'front lines' she actually had a career and went to college. she was actually the CFO of a big company! she is a certified personal accountant and really successful. she now just works at home a little and has become a stay-at-home mom. well sort of. she picked up a part time job at disney to get all of her kids in the park! she was so cool to talk to. you could tell she was really bright and ambitious and now that she had achieved all of her goals she was ready to be a mom. we were good pals.
so overall working at downtown disney hasn't been that bad. by the way, being deployed means i am only there for a week! basically they are overstaffed and needed to move us out. downtown disney is SO different though. obviously they dont have tunnels and they dont really have backstage areas.. so i can walk through all of downtown disney in my costume and not get in trouble. that blew my mind. also, they call breaks 'breaks' here! and you can talk about them onstage! as well as going to the bathroom, when you get off.. etc. we would get in big trouble for that! yesterday one girl whipped out her phone during a slow time, i'm pretty sure my jaw hit the floor. hmmm, we also have to clock out on the dot here, in fantasyland we clock out 12 minutes early... thats about it! basically its tons more laid back and super, super slow. very different.
one more funny story before i sign off! so when i was working d street last night there was this guy walking around like all day. he was in funny bedazzled shorts, a rockstar button up shirt with some chest hair showing, and a nice little european looking hat. he looked like he was looking for something... i asked another cast member what was going on. i guess this guy literally comes like every weekend and just dances everywhere in downtown disney. wherever there is music, that's where you'll find him. later that night i was coming off my break at this underground scary place called nick's and he was dancing away with some drunk european ladies! it was so funny! so yeah, lots of crazy locals come to downtown i guess. good stuff!
hope everyone is doing well! happy 41st birthday to walt disney world today!
so these past two weeks i have been away from my "home" of fantasyland! last week i was in UTAH! and this week i have been deployed to work in downtown disney!
so last wednesday i texted my dad to say that i missed him and i hoped that he had a good day at work. pretty soon after i sent the text he called me and said "when can you come home?" so i am guessing he was missing me just a little :) i said that i wasn't really sure... it is pretty hard for me to get work off. he said that this weekend (now last weekend) would be great because it was amanda's birthday, he had work off, and he was going boating. always the boating. hahaha. but anyways, i knew that a lot of part-time people were really fighting to get hours, so i said i would call him back in a little and see what i could do. ten minutes later i had five days off and a potential plane ticket! and by 10 am the next morning i was in salt lake! THANK YOU DAD!
I had an amazing week back home and i seriously miss utah so much. i had gotten over the homesickness but now it is definitely back. poop. haha. Me and dad weren't able to pull off a plan so that we could surprise mom, but i did get to surprise amanda! her last region tennis match was at roy the day i got to utah so she saw me for the first time in the stands for her last high school game! i was worried i would throw off her groove but she played so good and ended up winning! go amanda! i also got to see her play in her region tournament which she did so well in... i am so proud of you amanda! i am so glad i got to see her play tennis because i missed all of her varsity time last year even though i was just in provo. for her birthday we spent the night at the grand america and shopped at city creek! we had so much fun! i freaking love the grand! we have stopped going at christmas but i think we will start again after this trip :)
the night we were in salt lake was also miss mackynzie's birthday party in provo so i drove down there and partied with my BYU ladies for a night! oh my goodness... I MISS BYU! I cannot wait to go back there in January! i just love the people there and the atmosphere and yeah. judge me! i love it! back in logan i got to see all my friends, eat betos, wear cozy clothes and not sweat to death.. it was the best! one of my very favorite things was the last day i was in town me and amanda drove up logan canyon to get raspberry shakes. it was so beautiful. oh my gosh i want to cry when i think of it. we made a stop at beaver and it had just rained a little bit... it smelled so good, the weather was perfect, and the leaves were sooo pretty. i have decided logan canyon is seriously my heaven on earth. i miss it like crazy. oh! almost forgot. i also got to go to the logan high homecoming game. super senior? never! go grizz! it was great :) (we won, duh.)
so after a lovely flight in first class (thank you delta american express!) and some held back tears on the cache valley express i was back in orlando. as soon as i got to wdw property i headed over to downtown disney costuming! had to get 2 new costumes for the shops where i am working which are D Street and the Disney Quest Emporium on the west side. oh my goodness. they are ugly. hahaha.
so D Street is like the hip adult apparel store. we have lots of art and star wars and marvel and stuff like that. it's also the headquarters for the vinylmation collectables. i had no idea what i was doing with those because i am only familiar with pin trading in fantasyland, but it is pretty similar. they come in sets... but there's a lot more mystery to it. there is also a lot of one-of-a-kind vinylmations. but yeah so basically it's really expensive and i would not suggest getting into it. there are some people that FREAK out about it. right when i came in for my shift one girl came in with this fancy shoe holder thing she converted to a vinylmation holder.. she had 48 in there! and these things aren't that small! so yeah we have a little mystery cupboard we trade with and there are all these rules cause people try and cheat the system and yeah. good stuff!
at d street there is also a cart i have to work, not too bad. my favorite position was probably the "create your own" table. we give little kids blank pieces of paper in the shape of a vinylmation and they color it. simple, but they really like it. when they are done we have them sign their name and hang it up on the wall for everyone to see! good stuff.
oh i almost forgot. this weekend in downtown disney was the frankenweenie weekend. it's the new tim burton movie coming out. d street was also the headquarters for all of that shiz so we had some super weird people coming in. sorry to be stereotyping but a lot of people who like that stuff are straight up scary. hahaha. but they had a meet and greet with jack and sally, so people were FREAKING out. it was the hugest line i have ever seen for a character, and i've seen lots. also there was a picture spot in some fake pet cemetery and special screenings at the AMC of other tim burton movies. so yeah. woo hoo.
so today I was in Disney Quest! Disney Quest is the interactive theme park located in downtown disney. the "emporium" is the exit shop for it. today. was. so. slow. and i worked for 10 hours! that is the longest shift i have ever had! oh my goodness! but i lived. there is nothing too interesting about it, except i did get rotated up to the 'gallery' once. i wasn't supposed to but i guess they were short or something? the gallery is actually in disney quest and you have to help with the rides a little bit. so as i said they are interactive so you get to create almost everything you do. so at the gallery you can boy a toy you designed, buy a dvd of you riding a ride you created, burn a cd of a song you made, or buy the drawing of a character you learned to draw in our little lessons. it was cool, but i literally sold one thing the whole time. so slow. but i guess it does do pretty well? i just had a slow day. while i was working there i met this really sweet lady named Patty. unlike so many people that work at disney on the 'front lines' she actually had a career and went to college. she was actually the CFO of a big company! she is a certified personal accountant and really successful. she now just works at home a little and has become a stay-at-home mom. well sort of. she picked up a part time job at disney to get all of her kids in the park! she was so cool to talk to. you could tell she was really bright and ambitious and now that she had achieved all of her goals she was ready to be a mom. we were good pals.
so overall working at downtown disney hasn't been that bad. by the way, being deployed means i am only there for a week! basically they are overstaffed and needed to move us out. downtown disney is SO different though. obviously they dont have tunnels and they dont really have backstage areas.. so i can walk through all of downtown disney in my costume and not get in trouble. that blew my mind. also, they call breaks 'breaks' here! and you can talk about them onstage! as well as going to the bathroom, when you get off.. etc. we would get in big trouble for that! yesterday one girl whipped out her phone during a slow time, i'm pretty sure my jaw hit the floor. hmmm, we also have to clock out on the dot here, in fantasyland we clock out 12 minutes early... thats about it! basically its tons more laid back and super, super slow. very different.
one more funny story before i sign off! so when i was working d street last night there was this guy walking around like all day. he was in funny bedazzled shorts, a rockstar button up shirt with some chest hair showing, and a nice little european looking hat. he looked like he was looking for something... i asked another cast member what was going on. i guess this guy literally comes like every weekend and just dances everywhere in downtown disney. wherever there is music, that's where you'll find him. later that night i was coming off my break at this underground scary place called nick's and he was dancing away with some drunk european ladies! it was so funny! so yeah, lots of crazy locals come to downtown i guess. good stuff!
hope everyone is doing well! happy 41st birthday to walt disney world today!
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