Opinions

Give The Kids The World Village Visit
by Wendy Hayton June 2004

As you may remember just after Christmas I e-mailed and asked for any left over Christmas paper which I was arranging to donate to Give the Kids the World Village (GKTW). As many of you know I am Disney mad and belong to an e-mail group who support the village. One of my ‘friends’ Beccy invited us to tour the village while we where there.

This article explains more about the village, its founder, Henri Landwirth, and our visit. If you are inspired to help it also outlines the items I took along and am collecting for my next trip.

Tattooed on Henri's arm is the number B4343 a stark reminder of the 5 years, between the ages of 13 and 18, spent shuttling between Nazi death and labour camps including Auschwitz. On one occasion he bumped into his mother who's only concern was not of him but did he have food for her. At the end of the war a Nazi who told him to run rather than shoot him as he had been ordered saved his life.

Henri now considers his life a miracle and believes himself on borrowed time which he intends to give back through helping the lives of those in need.

Soon after arriving in New York, with only $20, Henri received a letter from the US President, a welcome letter no it was his draft notice! He took full advantage to learn everything he could – including the language and used the release benefits to train in hotel management.

A job in a hotel near Kennedy Space Centre forged life long friendships with early Astronauts and Walter Cronkite the Newsman. It was John Glenn who noticed the tattoo hidden under the long sleeved shirts and made Henri understood that he should not be ashamed of it and that it is part of what made him him. The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, began with these friends, and the start of Henri’s work. Henri is always asking himself what more he can do to help children in need and how to say thanks to his adopted country for the blessings bestowed on him. There are too many foundations, awards and honours to list here so I will concentrate on the Village.

Henri was part of an informal network of hoteliers committed to fulfilling dying wishes to children but the defining moment was in 1986 when the family of a critically ill six-year-old girl, scheduled to stay at one of his hotels, cancelled. The child had died with her final wish—to meet Mickey Mouse—unfulfilled. Landwirth vowed to cut through the interminable red tape delays facing wish foundations and thus created Give Kids The World so that no child is ever made to wait until it is too late. "Rush wishes" can happen every week, and arrangements made overnight to bring a child.

Soon the numbers outgrow the hotels and caused difficulties with the lack of specialised equipment and facilities. Henri then put $1million dollars behind the project to build the Village, a major undertaking, but quickly becoming a community project. He worked twenty-hour days with a staff of over 100 volunteers. Area associations helped link the organisation to donated goods from plumbers, plasterers, and electricians. Furniture manufacturing companies helped to complete the interior of the villas, where families would stay. Everyone from the Florida Irrigation Society to the Lumber Association volunteered time and resources.

The staff are proud to say that the only contract for the village was the one to buy the land and that Henri’s philosophy is to consider the power of a handshake and remember that miracles do happen and they happen every day.

The resort is non-profit making providing children with life-threatening and chronic illnesses, or those who are terminally ill and their families a weeklong vacation in Orlando and its famous attractions at no cost to themselves. When they ask what to bring they are told a suitcase to take home all the goodies they will be given.

Henri feels that you have to give of yourself – not money, but the essence of yourself and that is what makes life meaningful. And I am sure that the 1800 volunteers, known as Angels, who provide more than 105,000 hours each year, echo this. It is estimated that this saves the foundation $2million and goes a long way to ensuring that 92.5 cents of every dollar raised goes directly to the program and is not spent on administration.

Henri acknowledges the integral role played by project volunteers. On any given day, you will find executives side by side with workers, senior citizens and children doing everything from landscaping to greeting families and serving meals. They are particular about their volunteers and do not accept ‘court assigned’ hours wanting only those people who want to be there. The idea is that the village is a fantasy world providing a much-needed escape from doctors and hospitals and is a very happy place. One family wrote ‘you made my daughter smile more in one week than she has in her whole 4 years of life’ another that ‘our brief escape at your village was a gift beyond comprehension.’

Large organisations obviously play a part. The village holds all the courtesy tickets for the large theme parks who consequently direct all requests to village staff.

Many of the facilities if not initially built by a company they then take over sponsorship. Perkins chain provide the food and staff to cook 200,000 meals per year. The waiting on etc carried out by the Angels.

The theatre is often used for presentations to companies and our guide told us that they are always pleased that they obviously see there guest in before seating themselves – all the adult sized seats are at the back!

One parent wrote ‘Having a child with a rare medical disorder, special education needs, and most recently, cancer, the world can be such a lonely place. Lots of "why?" "what next?" "how?" and, unfortunately, "how much?" With your support, we had a week where we were confronted instead with "why not?" "whatever you want," "have more," "how can we help?" and "it's free."

This is certainly true at the ice cream palace.We took a welcome break here in the heat and indulged ourselves with our hosts and the children.

As the waterways are part of Orlando’s natural waterways one-summer otters visited and ‘ate all the fish’. The children are also warned to watch out for alligators – although Beccy did say that they had never seen one nor had she caught any fish. Elissa thought this might have more to do with that the original stock was of plant eating fish and not those that would take flies of lines. I am sure you fisherman out there would understand this more than we did. And the rumours that there aren’t really any in there just weren’t true.

Everything in the village is bright colours even the gas cylinders. As they were around the lake the volunteers painted them as ‘yellow submarines’ complete with Beatles. This enthusiasm lead to the village running out of gas as deliverymen are trained to look for and fill white ones! A quick phone call to the gas company later and now deliverymen enter into the spirit of the village and look for white ones and yellow submarines.

As Elissa described how the pool in Claytonburg Park of dreams works with the ramp and the plastic wheelchair to give access. She told the story how this had allowed the disabled father of one of the wish children to swim with his children for the first time.

The village is full of tales like this of special moments with very special children. One which we heard in the chapel made me realise how special. But I will leave that for the staff to tell you when you visit.

Even without covering the golf course, the play area, the carousel, the train station, the nature trail and Major Clayton’s Bunny Hut I hope my ‘brief’ insight gives you the feel of the place. They always welcome visitors to the Village and Elissa invited you all to attend. They can always make time to take people round.

VIDEO

Elissa posted me a video about the Village in PAL format (which means that we can watch it over here) if any one would like to see it please ask.

DONATIONS

Thank you to those of you who helped out with donations. I didn’t just take the wrapping paper but many other things too. I ‘spoke’ to Beccy while arranging my visit and found lots of areas to help out in and ended up taking a huge holdall. Alan didn’t mind me packing and unpacking it to try to get it all in. He didn’t mind carrying it on and off the train, or across to the airport but I must say that he was a little perturbed when this, out of all of our bags, was the one chosen to be searched! The official was also confused – 48 McDonald toys, 20 rolls of wrapping paper, 20 toothbrushes madam? After a short explanation and a cursory glance he gave up! I am sure he wondered not just if I had lost the plot but more importantly how he would get it all back in.

On arrival at the village each family are given a welcome pack. This is where the toothbrushes, small soaps and travel toiletries size (like those in hotel rooms) fitted in. I also had some inexpensive soap bags and shower puffs. I made bags from Disney material, sewed felt ‘poohs’ onto plain ones and ‘twisted’ yards of wool to make draw strings for them to make up the welcome pack.

Each day a gift is left for the children and this is where the McDonalds toys along with packs of pens, pencils, colouring books and other small items came in.

Santa visits each Thursday, often the last ‘Christmas’ for many of these children. When you realise that 7,000 families a year stay at the village we understood the need for wrapping paper.

One craze in the parks is pin trading. To do this you need a lanyard – slightly wider than the one holding your works pass, and rather than the pass a character picture. With the aid of one of my Christmas Pressies, a laminator, and ‘sponsorship’ from my mum for the cord and curtain rings I made 125 of these.

I have started my bag for next year, yes Alan we are going again. My first project is to purchase inexpensive ‘barbie’ dolls (£1.50 in Instore) and with the aid of my dressmaking skills to make them into princesses. I will also be sewing more bags, making more lanyards and buying toothbrushes by the dozen (well half a dozen as that’s how many are on a card in Everything’s a Pound!)

Here’s where you can help – I need scraps of material, felt, wool, Disney or Universal birthday wrapping paper, gift tags and birthday cards (can be used ones).

If you have any of these or small toys or if you would like to be the proud sponsor of a Princess just drop them at my desk. And around Christmas when its buy 2 rolls get one free put the free one aside and drop it off.

Much as Walt Disney World was started by a mouse the Village began because one little girl's dream touched the heart of a man who cared. Winston Churchill said that "You make a living by what you get… you make a life by what you give" and Anne Frank wrote "How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." Pamela Landwirth President said People may forget what you say, they may forget what you do, but they will never forget how you made them feel.

Alan and I hope that in some little way we achieved all of this when made the donations and are looking forward to doing it again.