As many of you are aware Shirl and I lost our youngest daughter to Leukeamia 22 years ago, but 8 months before she passed the Make-a-wish Foundation sent our family to Give Kids the World village here in Kissimmee Florida for a hectic week full of memories which we'll keep for ever. When we left they gave us a gold star on which we should have put Carla's name on and it would have been placed on the ceiling of the " Castle" at the village. We misunderstood and it didn't happen but 4 years ago we went back to visit the village and we finally put her name on a star, yesterday we went for another visit and after help from staff members we finally located her star on the ceiling. There were some very moist eyes too I can tell you.
The reason we went yesterday was to give them the contents of our "Wishing Well" which lives on the counter in the kitchen, guests tend to leave their shrapnel in it rather than carry change home. We emptied and counted it last week and there was almost $40 inc. a $10 note, so we rounded it up to $50 and took it down to GKTW.
This is a magical place where kids with with life threatening illnesses can come for a week of relatively stress less relaxation and even some fun. Below you can see the number of Carla's star 265,439 and they placed her star 4 years ago in the section of the ceiling relating to the time she was there, one week in April 1994.
Carla's star is the one 2nd row at the right hand edge of the white panel, it says "Carla Poppet"
Here's a picture of part of the ceiling covered with these stars, there is also a tower which was added to simply house many,many more on its inside wall.
Every morning breakfast was served to us all by volunteers in the Gingerbread House restaurant, a truly picturesque fairytale place, around the ceiling were dolls donated by grateful parents.
To the left is a huge new building which has gone up in the last four years, it's very impressive inside, much larger food service area to cope with the village as it constantly expands to help more families. We talked to a couple from London area with their two boys, both autistic, but the older boy doesn't speak and had cancer treatment last year.
Tony.
The reason we went yesterday was to give them the contents of our "Wishing Well" which lives on the counter in the kitchen, guests tend to leave their shrapnel in it rather than carry change home. We emptied and counted it last week and there was almost $40 inc. a $10 note, so we rounded it up to $50 and took it down to GKTW.
This is a magical place where kids with with life threatening illnesses can come for a week of relatively stress less relaxation and even some fun. Below you can see the number of Carla's star 265,439 and they placed her star 4 years ago in the section of the ceiling relating to the time she was there, one week in April 1994.
Carla's star is the one 2nd row at the right hand edge of the white panel, it says "Carla Poppet"
Here's a picture of part of the ceiling covered with these stars, there is also a tower which was added to simply house many,many more on its inside wall.
Every morning breakfast was served to us all by volunteers in the Gingerbread House restaurant, a truly picturesque fairytale place, around the ceiling were dolls donated by grateful parents.
To the left is a huge new building which has gone up in the last four years, it's very impressive inside, much larger food service area to cope with the village as it constantly expands to help more families. We talked to a couple from London area with their two boys, both autistic, but the older boy doesn't speak and had cancer treatment last year.
Tony.
