Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Volunteer Appreciation

Today I had the opportunity to attend the annual VoluntEAR Appreciation and Recognition breakfast, held at Epcot's World Showplace Pavilion. Each year, Disney honors and recognizes those Cast Members who dedicate personal hours to their community. While my volunteer work was certainly not as extensive as some of the other attendees, I felt privaledged and proud to be part of this event.

I attended with fellow coworkers David, Brian, and Natasha. The event took place in an ornately decorated pavillion. We found our table number without a problem, and I was immediately impressed with the table's decor, particularly the welcoming strawberry smoothies in wine glasses at each plate.

As I was glancing through the informational booklet found on each chair, and I was surprised to see my name listed as one of the "Ears To You" Grant recipients. I received a 100.00 check to put towards the organization of my choice. Very cool way to start the day.

The breakfast was amazing, and our guest gpeaker--Meg Crofton, the President of Walt Disney World-- spoke volumes of praise to the 400 or so Cast Members in attendance. According to the statistics we heard this morning, Disney's voluntEARs contributed over 3.5 million dollars in volunteer hours to the Central Florida community.

It's mornings like today that remind me why I love working for Disney... and in the day-to-day routine of writing technical documents, sometimes we all need that little extra splash of pixie dust.

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