Disney — By Jenni Ingersoll on April 18, 2010 at 8:00 am
Filed under: Disneyland Resort, featuredarticle, Walt Disney World

Adventures in Volunteering

Early in December, fans of Walt Disney World Resort (map) and Disneyland Resort (map) were all a twitter with the release of information regarding a year long promotion the Disney Parks would be running, Give a Day, Get a Day.

For the first one million people, the mere act of volunteering for a designated not for profit or agency, would grant those volunteers, aged six and up, a free day in a Disney Park.

The promotion was such a huge success, that complaints were flooding in that there were not enough volunteer opportunities. As eager volunteers calmed down and learned that there would be plenty of opportunities, things settled down a little.

I have to admit it, I was one of those frantic searchers flooding the Hands On Network’s website on the first official day of registering. And, I was one of those that panicked when I saw that although there were many volunteer opportunities that sounded really interesting to me, there were not a lot of places that accepted volunteers aged 16 and below.

How pleased I was to find Project Linus, a national organization run entirely by volunteers. Named after the blanket toting Peanuts comic character, Linus, this organization attempts to provide love and security to children who are seriously ill, traumatized or otherwise in need.

Through the gift of new, handmade blankets all created by volunteer, “blanketeers”, the Central Indiana Chapter of Project Linus, alone, has distributed nearly 5,000 blankets to hospitals, homeless shelters, foster homes and camps for medically challenged children.

The website had patterns and instructions for several blankets. The no-sew fleece pattern seemed perfect for any age, with any skill level. This was the volunteer project for our entire family!

We registered our intention to volunteer. Received our notice of where and when the completed blankets should be donated, along with photos of each member of our family enjoying the activity and made the required two blankets for each volunteer.

At the drop-off location, as we walked in, I was not quite prepared for what I would see, groups of families with home-made blankets held proudly in their arms, volunteers accepting the blankets with true appreciation and tables of more volunteers lovingly hand-sewing Project Linus tags to a corner of each blanket preparing them for distribution.

We left the drop-off site, excitedly, knowing that not only were we about to receive a wonderful day at a Disney park, but thrilled that we had done something to make someone else have a wonderful day, too.

Our certificates for our Disney Day arrived within a few days via e-mail, and feeling a little like an NFL football star winning the Super Bowl, with the announcer declaring “Ingersoll family, you just made 8 blankets for Project Linus! What’s next? ….” I printed off the receipts, ran and announced to the family “We’re going to Disney World!”

Redeeming our free tickets was relatively easy. Certificates are presented at a ticket purchasing window at our park of choice along with photo ids. We ran into a little snag, as I had not read the fine print that identification is needed for the children as well. A supervisor was quickly summoned, the children were asked a few questions and our tickets were issued. To avoid this slight delay, bring photo ids, passports or copies of birth certificates for each volunteer certificate.

Now through the gates of the Magic Kingdom, our family stopped in City Hall in the Main Street USA area of the park to receive special buttons that declared “I Volunteered”. Throughout the day, several Disney Cast members, congratulated us on our efforts.

A mere 10 weeks into the program, Disney declared that the one millionth volunteer voucher had been issued. Volunteers will be allowed to use their certificates through December, but additional volunteer days will not be offered.

It is my deep hope that many of these one million volunteers will continue to search out ways to volunteer. I know that our family will continue to volunteer and support not-for-profit organizations whenever possible. While our free day at Disney was fun, the day we delivered our Project Linus blankets was thrilling.

Photo Selection: WDW News, Garth Vaughn photographer

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