Students from the OU Alpha Phi Omega chapter spent a week in Florida volunteering at Give Kids The World, a 79-acre “storybook” resort, where children who have life-threatening illnesses and their families can stay at no cost to them and experience a fantasy vacation.
While some Ohio University students might have used the winter break to catch up on sleep, members of Alpha Phi Omega were volunteering at Give Kids The World in Florida, a nonprofit organization for children with life-threatening illnesses.
Give Kids The World began when a young girl with leukemia named Amy was unable to get her one wish, to visit the theme parks in Orlando, because her time ran out before her opportunity arose. Amy’s family had made arrangements with Henri Landwirth to stay at his hotel near Orlando at no cost to them, and after Amy died, Landwirth decided to build the Give Kids The World Village.
On the Give Kids The World website, the village is described as a 79-acre “storybook” resort, where children who have life-threatening illnesses and their families can stay at no cost to them and experience a fantasy vacation.
Sarah Bell, the president of the OU Alpha Phi Omega chapter and junior studying health communication, went on the trip last summer and said it was a truly magical experience.
“It’s a really magnificent place,” Bell said. “You meet families from all over the world and see these kids who are really sick, but you just have no idea because they are so happy to be in this magical, wonderful place that is so different from home.”
Volunteers from Alpha Phi Omega typically pay around $200 out of pocket to go on the trip, Bell said. Typically, they rent a van from OU and carpool down to Orlando, driving for 17 or more hours straight. If a driver gets tired, they will stop and switch drivers.
When the volunteers are staying in Orlando, they try to find a place that can host between 16 to 20 people that isn’t going to break the bank. Groups from the co-ed service fraternity drive down to the Give Kids The World Village two times a year, once during the summer break and once during the winter break.
Give Kids The World looks for certain characteristics in potential volunteers, like compassion, dedication and the will to provide the most “perfect” guest experience possible to the children and their families, according to the website.
“If I wasn’t a part of Alpha Phi Omega, I probably wouldn’t have heard about this volunteering opportunity, so it makes me really glad that I joined,” Kevin Feinberg, a senior studying business said. “Not very many people know about Give Kids The World, and they really experience a shortage of volunteers when class is in session, because their younger volunteers are unable to leave their studies.”
{{tncms-asset app="editorial" id="523f9ac0-ba35-11e5-83d6-5b51efca1ad0"}}
Since 2013, Feinberg has gone on five trips to the Give Kids The World Village, and he said one of the moments that hit home for him was when they told the new volunteers during orientation that the weekly parties the resort may be the last the children ever get to experience. For students at Playboy’s top party school, that might be hard to imagine.
“It’s such a surreal opportunity to help these families who are going through so much,” Feinberg said. “They get to have one week of vacation where they don’t have to worry about the different treatments the kids have to go through. It gives the kids a chance to actually be a kid and just have fun for a week.”
Each child who comes to the village gets to make a star that they put up in the castle on the resort. There have been more than 143,000 children that have stayed with Give Kids The World, and the castle is nearly running out of space for all the stars, Feinberg said.
“Sometimes you have families come back and try to find their child’s star after they have passed away,” Feinberg said. “It’s a very emotional time for them, but they’ll talk about how great of a time they had at Give Kids The World.”
The village runs off of donations and volunteer support. Ninety percent of the staff are volunteers, Feinberg said.
“If a kid wants chicken fingers, it doesn’t matter if it’s breakfast, we’ll fire up the friers and get that kid chicken fingers,” Feinberg said. “The volunteers get the opportunity to help these kids have a week where they can forget the crap that they’re going through, and it really means alot to me. That’s why I’ve tried going back as often as I can.”
kc036114@ohio.edu
@KyraCobbie
