Give Kids the World Village is a magical location established in the shadow of Orlando’s popular tourist attractions to provide week-long, cost-free wish vacations for families with critically ill children. Funding such lofty goals is a herculean effort and I’m constantly impressed by the creative ways that the GKTW Village team provides unique experiences to meet these needs.
During the tremendously challenging COVID period, there was a period the Village was closed to Wish families, so the team established the Night of a Million Lights which was visited by more than 92,000 guests over 52 nights and named by USA TODAY the “Number One Thing To Do In Orlando In December.” They transformed their villas and attractions into a twinkling wonderland and collected funds to ensure a robust return to their normal operations once they could welcome back Wish families.
Fast forward to 2023, Give the Kids World Village will host more Wish families this month than ever and anticipate continuing this trend. So the team had a new challenge: balancing the privacy and care for their Wish families with the tremendous success of their holiday events. We had a chance to sample their answer during a media preview of the exclusive Holiday VIP Tour coming this Christmas season. It is a magical mixture of the beauty of the holiday season’s twinkling lights (more than 1 million) paired with the even more beautiful behind-the-scenes stories of the people and places that make Give Kids the World Village an amazing place for Wish families.
The tour started with a brief history of Give Kids the World’s founding by Henri Landwirth, a holocaust survivor. Landwirth regularly donated accommodations for sick children wanting to visit Disney World in the 80s. After finding out that one such trip was canceled because the little girl had passed away before the trip could be arranged, Landwirth decided to create an organization that could streamline the process and, thus, Give Kids the World was born in 1986.
Throughout our abbreviated tour we strolled through the Village’s Avenue of the Angels and learned more about the history behind some of their signature locations including Castle of Miracles, Henri’s Starlite Scoops (including its connection to astronaut Buzz Aldrin?), and were able to see a few of the Village’s villas covered in twinkling lights. We also passed their tree trail and made a brief stop at the Amberville Train station’s impressive and enormous interactive train model pushing the buttons that bring it to life.
Along the way we not only learned about the good Give Kids the World does, but the good the surrounding community does in donating their time, money and services to creating experiences in the village. For example, Marc McMonnell visited Give Kids the World in 1999. In 2002 a golf course was created in his honor in collaboration with Universal Orlando.
Also along the tour are numerous spots for photos including some specifically created by Give Kids the World partners.
Give Kids the World Village exclusive Holiday VIP Tour beautifully weaves the joy of giving with traditional holiday fun and will run about 90 minutes. The exclusive Holiday VIP Tour will only be available for 8 nights over select weekends (November 17, 18; December 1, 2, 15, 16, 21, 22).
Got my picture with Sprinkles