Disney and BIG SUNDAY: ‘A Perfect Match’
They call themselves VoluntEARS.
For going on 25 years, The Walt Disney Company has sent out a global corps of employees to give back through community service. And now, as part of its plans to mark this milestone in 2008, Disney is forging an even closer relationship to Big Sunday, which is itself celebrating its 10-year anniversary this year.
“Not only is Big Sunday the biggest community service day in Los Angeles, it’s the biggest weekend of community service in the country,” said Jamie Keyser, Disney’s senior representative of community relations. “Given that we have such a strong network of volunteers, it’s a perfect match.”
Indeed, not only is Disney planning to send hundreds of volunteers to several signature projects on Big Sunday ’08, it has stepped up to become Big Sunday’s lead sponsor.
“We’re thrilled and grateful that Disney has made such a generous donation,” said David Levinson, executive director of Big Sunday. “But what’s even more amazing is to see the kindness and good spirit that so many of its employees give on Big Sunday. We are incredibly proud of our partnership with our friends at Disney.”
Last year, Disney donated more than $177 million in cash and in-kind support to various charities around the world, while its VoluntEARS contributed some 466,000 hours of service. The VoluntEARS program, Keyser notes, is built on the ideals of founder Walt Disney, who believed that it was essential to give back.
“I always hear from our employees how grateful they are for the experience and how rewarding they’ve found it,” Keyser said. “People tell me over and over again that they get so much more from the experience than they expected. They can’t wait to volunteer again.”
Among the many organizations Disney employees help are Habitat for Humanity, Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, Special Olympics, TreePeople, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Heal The Bay and the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Disney’s involvement with Big Sunday began in 2006 when it made a significant donation and encouraged its employees to get involved. For Big Sunday ’07, the company became a lead sponsor, donated books and clothing for disadvantaged children, and sent several hundred employees and their families to its Big Sunday project at Bert Corona Charter School in Pacoima.
The school, which serves a mostly low-income Latino population, had long been planning to sod a 30,000-square-foot dirt field, which was strewn with rocks. Officials there thought the project would take about three years to complete. With the combined help of Big Sunday and Disney, it took about a month, with most of the work done in a single day.
In true Big Sunday fashion, the project was a genuine community effort. The City of Los Angeles prepared the field by removing rocks and grading it and planning for a new irrigation system. The school received a Caesar Chavez After School Service Club grant that helped pay for the grass and irrigation works. TreePeople donated hundreds of trees and plants, and sent volunteers. The troops from Disney, meanwhile, served lunch to 560 workers, paid for arts-and-crafts material, secured a muralist and brought in hundreds of volunteers.
“We had Disney volunteers, our parents, grandparents, students and teachers, TreePeople and community members” said Ruben Dueñas, the school’s principal “One of my teachers said that it was Bert Corona Charter School’s best day ever. I think that about sums it up.”
Yvette King-Berg, executive director of Bert Corona, said that Disney’s volunteers did more than build a field; they built bridges. “These people couldn’t be more different,” King-Berg said. “Big Sunday gave them an opportunity to come together. The cultural exchange was profound.”
Among the most remarkable experiences King-Berg had on Big Sunday was listening to the volunteers from Disney and the Bert Corona community separately confide their amazement at each other’s dedication.
“Our parents told me with tears in their eyes that they were overwhelmed that these people who didn’t know them at all, or have a stake in their community, came out to help them,” King-Berg said, choking back her own tears at the memory. “And then all these volunteers from Disney and TreePeople told me how moved they were that our parents came out and worked this hard to make the school better for their kids.”
Still, even though it was a joint project, King-Berg noted that without Disney, it never would have happened.
“It was great to watch the Disney employees with their children working hand in hand with our parents and their children to get this job done,” she said. “As big as Disney gets, it doesn’t forget to reach out and help the community. What they did for us on Big Sunday will forever be embedded in our hearts and minds.”
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