For my Boston Globe essay on visiting Disney world with my grandson, click here.
Disney Parks recently launched its “Give a Day, Get a Disney Day" program that rewards volunteer service with a free day at Disney. And this week, Walt Disney World is doing even more for some superstar volunteer families, flying them to the park to celebrate their good deeds. Among thosee celebrants is the Glidden family of Lynn, Mass.
You see, when it comes to volunteering, 11-year-old Victoria Glidden is always game, bringing her own “team” – her family – to help in her philanthropy. In 2008, Victoria was elected a Red Sox Kid Nation Captain. As a captain, she organized a winter coat drive, and with the help of friends and family collected 350 coats for children in need. Through the Red Sox Kid Nation program, the Glidden family also participated in a backpack drive to benefit underprivileged students attending Boston schools. In addition to collecting more than 4,000 school supplies for the packs, the family spent the day at Fenway Park filling and handing out backpacks. The family is also involved with Blanket the Globe, a project led by children to increase environmental awareness for youth around the world.
Disney hopes to inspire such deeds this year through this first-of-its-kind program. One million people who perform volunteer service for a participating organization will receive a free one-day admission ticket to a Walt Disney World Resort or Disneyland Resort theme park. To learn more about the program, visit http://www.disneyparks.com/(for the United States and Puerto Rico) or http://www.disneyparks.ca/ (for Canada).
Missy Piggy and Kermit the Frog lead a "VoluntEars" parade. (Photo/Walt Disney Co.)
Food, fun and murder at a Maine inn
The Harraseeket Inn in Freeport, Maine, is offering an intriguing Murder by Shopping package March 7-9. The mystery begins on Sunday evening and develops through Monday, but there will be enough free time to take advantage of the inn's restaurants and an indoor pool, or go shopping at over 170 designer outlets just blocks away. Tuesday breakfast is when the murderer will be revealed. The cost is $348 per person double occupancy, including two nights' lodging, many meals, taxes and tips, and, of course, participation in the mystery.
For reservations, call 800-342-6423. For information, click here.
Fascinating fact
The country of Tonga once issued a stamp shaped like a banana.
Did anyone notice the lodge?
The Alto Atacama Desert Lodge & Spa in Chile’s Atacama Desert plays a significant role in Sports Illustrated's annual swimsuit issue, now on the stands, The Atacama, the driest desert in the world, gave photographer Raphael Mazzucco the chance to work with an array of one-of-a-kind Andean backdrops to showcase the swimwear and the models. Likewise, the models posed for thousands of photos in the lodge's guestroom terraces and against the dusty orange hills that surround the property, at turquoise-colored salt flats, sand dunes and oases.
For information on the lodge, visit http://www.altoatacama.com/. For behind-the-scenes photos of the models at the Alto Atacama, visit www.si.com/swimsuit.
But hold on -- Portugal also claims a significant role in the photo shoot. The S.I. models and crew were also photographed in the Lisbon region, and stayed at the Ritz Lisbon Four Seasons.
