Walk for Wishes

We did the Walk for Wishes today in Celebration. This was the first year they had it there and you could tell. It was a nice day though, they brought out a Make a Wish family from the area, and honestly, I had to distract myself so I wouldn't cry. Natalie was dancing with her father at a wedding in which she was a bridesmaid. During the dance she suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm. Her father said the statistics on surviving something like that are not very good, but after 3 years of surgeries, treatment and rehab you would never know what happened to this girl. While she was going through rehab a volunteer from Make a Wish contacted the family and asked what Natalie's wish would be. She wanted to go to Hawaii. Because of the donations to Make a Wish Natalie and her family were able to take that trip. That is one of the many reasons I truly love this charity, they give families hope and something positive to look forward to. Below is a video of Natalie singing "A Dream is a Wish"

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Now onto something a little more light-hearted. I have been getting called out on my Chicago accent lately. Apparently I sound like every character in the SNL skit called Bill Swerkski's Super Fans. If you have never seen this skit, shame! But here it is for all of you who haven't...


Yup, apparently that's EXACTLY what I sound like...awesome!

Hope you're having a great weekend!

Our day at the park

Aaron, Cameron and Jill

Hadden (I'm 90% sure), Aaron, Jill and Hunter

Aaron and Jill

Hendrix (maybe?) and Aaron

Jill showing off her Pampers

The group

Another group shot

We went to the park today with the Lyons and Adams families. We also got to meet Olga and her cuties! The park was a good 45 minutes away from the house, but the kids slept the entire time which is always wonderful! We had a really good time out there, Jill even gave out her first kiss! I think April had Hadden in her lap and Jill crawled over, climbed up, and planted one right on his cheek! It was the cutest thing I've ever seen! That made up for all her bully like behavior I suppose. I kept losing track of Aaron though because he was dressed similar to April's boys and just seemed to blend in. After the park we went over to visit Scott at work, since he's only 15 minutes away from the park we were at. The kids were already asleep so we didn't stay long.
Tomorrow is the Walk for Wishes in Celebration to benefit the Make a Wish Foundation of Central Florida. I am so excited about this walk! Like I said in my first post on it, this is my favorite charity. If you would like to donate (I would totally apprecaite it!) you can do so here.

Hope everyone is having a happy Friday!!!!

My Make a Wish story

I started a team for the Walk for Wishes here in Central Florida. The walk is on March 21st and is in Celebration at 10am. If you are local I really encourage you to join us (well right now it's just me) for this walk. There is a $10 registration fee that is due upon signing up, but that $10 is considered a donation to the Make a Wish Foundation. I know I do a lot of charity walks, but honestly this one is very important to me. Make a Wish Foundation is HUGE at Disney, mainly because this is where more kids want to go, and I got to meet a ton of these families while working there. We also had opportunities while on the College Program to go to the Make a Wish Village and stay with the kids while the parents got to have a night out. Let me share my Make a Wish story....
While I was on the College Program at Disney I worked on Main Street at the Magic Kingdom. I did a variety of things there, but on this particular day I was working parade audience control for the 3 o'clock and night time parades. I had a pretty easy station for the afternoon parade and was just walking around talking to the families waiting. Now before the parades, especially during the spring, we have marching bands from across the country play before hand. Well this one band came down and I saw this family stop to watch. It was a mom, dad, a son around 8 and a younger son in a wheelchair who was maybe 5. I got them squeezed into a spot to watch the band before it passed by. I started talking with the parents and they were saying that the band happened to be from their hometown and that was the only reason they stopped, they were actually heading out because there wasn't much for their younger son to do since they didn't want to keep transferring him in and out of his wheelchair for the rides. I started talking about all the rides at all the parks that they wouldn't have to do that and they were super grateful. We kept talking, even during the parade, which the 5 year old slept through (Murphy's law right?) and it just amazed me about their story. Never in a million years did they think they would be able to take their two boys to Disney World, mainly because of the medical expenses of their younger son. It hit me hard, it's something that I guess I always took advantage of. I went to Disney all the time as a kid, and obviously I was healthy and it wasn't an issue. Even now, I have two healthy kids that I can take anywhere and not even have to think about it. But not this family. It was also sad to think that this could be the last time that they would be able to do something like this, who knows how much longer their younger son had. I saw them the following day too at parade, they tracked me down because their son was finally awake so he could watch the parade that time. I fought to get them a seat, it was personal this time for me, and honestly of all the memories I have from working at Disney, that one is still the most vivid. I will never forget the way that boys face looked when the characters came by him and waved to him. I will never forget the way his parents smiled or how many times his older brother said "this is so cool!". I will always carry that family with me, and it is all because of Make a Wish. So I encourage you to help in anyway that you can to help make these kids dreams and wishes, however big or small, come true.