Give Kids the World

I know it's been sooo long since I wrote on our blog. What can I say it has been crazy around here lately. As most of you know, we just returned from Brynlee's make a wish trip the other day. It was absolutely amazing, and a trip we will never forget. For more on the trip see Brynlee's blog @ mygranddaughter.wordpress.com. I wanted to tell you more about the village that we stayed at. It is called "Give Kids the World" it's located about 7 miles from Walt Disney World and is the village where Make a Wish sends their wish kids for their Disney World trips.

This is the House of Hearts Welcome Center.

This building is called the Gingerbread House.
It is where breakfast and dinner are served.

This is the Castle of Miracles.

Attached to the Castle of Miracles, is the Carousel, Brynlee rode on the Carousel at least once each morning after breakfast.

Inside the Castle of Miracles, the ceiling is covered with stars, each star has the name of the Wish child who stayed there. Brynlee has a star on the ceiling. They gave us the position of Brynlee's star, so that we could find it again.

This is the Ice Cream Palace, it opens at 7:30 each morning and stays open til 9:30 at night. You can eat all the ice cream you want during your stay here.

This is called Amberville. It is home to the free video games, remote control boats, mini golf, mini train sets, and a train that runs around the building that you can ride to your hearts content.

Give Kids the World was created by an incredible man. Henri Landwirth, at the age of 13 found himself in a nazi death camp during WWII. He was there til the age of 18. He and his twin sister were the only ones in their family that survived the Holocaust. They fled to the U.S. and he later served in the Army during the Korean War. Upon return, he learned the Hotel trade and became very successful. During the 80's he was contacted by a very young organization called Make a Wish, and was asked to donate a room in his hotel for a family who's child had cancer and as a wish wanted to visit Disney world. He agreed, but while the family was waiting for other issues were resolved to get the family on their trip, the wish child died. He vowed to never let that happen again. He contacted many of his influential friends and acquaintances and Give Kids the World was created. They are the ones that actually make all the arrangements, for Make a Wish to send families to Disney World. They have 5000 volunteers that work at the village to make your trip so amazing.

As we exited the terminal at the airport, they had two men standing there holding a sign with Bryn's name on it. They took our bags, and got our checked baggage and wouldn't let us do anything. They escorted us to the car rental, and gave us directions to get to the village. When we arrived there we went to get checked in, and received shirts and stuffed toys for each of the kids. When we arrived at our villa, we found a gift bag with more stuff there. Every night when we returned to our villa, more gifts were waiting on the table. During meal times, the volunteers, called "angels" in the village, would make our plates for us, and then another "angel" would carry our plates to our table, and also get anything we needed while we ate. Their sole mission was to make our stay as relaxing as possible. It was incredible, just how hard these people work to give us an unforgettable experience. After our week was over they gave us a packet that included other amusment parks around the world that would allow us a one time free admission per park for the next year. Needless to say, we are looking at a California trip later in the year to go to several of the parks out there. I am sure there is more amazing things that I am leaving out but, just know that we were truly cared for during our trip. As we were herded onto the plane like cattle to come home I turned to Jen and said "I already miss Give Kids the World!!"