Day One (Morning) - Making Miracles (Already!)

Hello everyone!  The Ashland High School Give Kids the World volunteer group is going to keep a blog about our experiences volunteering at Give Kids the World in Kissimmee, Florida.  This is an annual service trip by the Ashland High School Make-A-Wish club to help the student club members understand and appreciate what their fundraising efforts does for families.  We all will be working six shifts at the Village - which is run primarily by volunteers - and it allows us the experience of serving families who are enjoying their Wish vacation.  All of the blog posts after this one will be written directly by the students!




Our arrival to Orlando has been... magical!  Originally we were supposed to fly in Thursday, but flights were cancelled due to the storm, and we were rebooked for Saturday into Tampa which would have cut the length of our trip almost in half.  Our awesome travel agent Eileen was working tirelessly to make things happen, but it was a tag of Delta by a parent in a Twitter post that got their attention and they went to work.  They created a brand new flight for us and has us out by 9:15am today! They also treated the kids to their brand new SkyLounge where everyone got to enjoy breakfast, drinks, and (much needed) coffee.





This is where things got amazing.  Upon boarding our pilot got on the intercom to let us know that he was a former Wish kid!  He survived his health issues and became a professional pilot! He didn't find out until 30 minutes prior to us boarding that he was taking a Make-A-Wish, and come to find out, it was a his last day of work for this airline.  Amazing.  He even came to take a group picture with all of us.  Such a special coincidence for everyone.





Now the kids are getting some lunch (and checking out the pool at our hotel) and getting ready for their first shift at the Village at 4:00pm.  Keep checking this blog for more updates through our trip!

- The Chaperones (Jen Shiels, Laurie Tosti, Erin Lachapelle, and Cory McGann)


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