For Your Time and Effort

What do three fleece blankets and one evening have to do with a vacation to Florida?
Quite a bit, actually. Here is the abridged version of our story…
Disney is offering up to six 1 day only tickets to one of their theme parks in exchange for your time as a volunteer. You must go through Disney’s website and sign up under the Give A Day, Get A Day program to qualify. You then pick a volunteer program you want to work with in your area, volunteer, follow all the steps to complete your participation and make your way to Disney!
The program I chose for our family is called Project Linus, which supplies homemade blankets to children who have suffered from illnesses or other tragedies. This was a great thing from the beginning. We picked out three fleece blanket kits from Jo-Ann’s, took them home, and started and finished them all in one night.

Audrey chose a very sweet girl pattern with birdies on it. I can just imagine some tween wrapping herself up in it! Ben chose a Mickey pattern because we were going to get to go to Disney ourselves. Maybe the child who receives Ben’s blanket will have their Make a Wish dream come true and get to go to Disney someday! Luke chose a puppy pattern because he LOVES puppies. I know that there is another little boy out there who scampers around on all fours, barking and insisting that his mommy call him a big puppy, instead of a big boy, too.

Audrey’s was perfect because though she had to measure and cut all the tabs herself, she was able to do a very good job and kept at it diligently. And I thank God because he allowed me to put aside my perfectionist tendencies (thus ruining a great thing) and let my daughter do it her own way. Ben’s was perfect because his was pre-marked and so he was able to do it almost entirely on his own, as well. Luke’s was perfect because he went to bed before the other two and Audrey and Ben did his for him, which ended up being a perfect example of teamwork!

It was a little hard prying these very warm blankets away from their own bodies. It was also a bit difficult explaining to a four year old that this very cute puppy blanket is for another child that they will never meet. Out of sight, out of mind is a very good thing.
There was a chance that Disney might not process our information in time and it wasn’t until two days before we went that we discovered that we did indeed have tickets reserved for us at Disney. After that, though, we had our final day planned for us!

Even if you never intend to go to Disney this year (or ever), I would highly recommend you follow through their link to see the local organizations you can donate your time and efforts too. Start at www.disneyparks.com