Every day Disney park guests make a wish and toss coins into Walt Disney World’s wishing wells and fountains. Recently $20,000 in coins became a Thanksgiving gift for central Florida’s largest homeless shelter.
“I am just so thankful, especially in light of everything that’s going on in the world and everything Disney is going through,” said Allison Krall, CEO of the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida, told the Orlando Sentinel. “We needed this so very much.”
The coins have been tossed by park guests into the wishing well at Cinderella’s Castle, along the waterways of the “It’s a Small World” ride, and in other fountains throughout Disney parks.
When the coins build up in Disney’s fountain, they are periodically collected, cleaned, and sorted before being donated to a Central Florida charity.
This year Disney made the decision to give the money to the Coalition for the Homeless, along with Disney’s chefs cooking up a Thanksgiving meal for 650 Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida guests.
The pull off the feast Disney chefs required seven kitchens, 250 pounds of turkey, 60 gallons of gravy and cranberry compote, 300 pounds of cornbread stuffing, mashed potatoes and green beans, 800 dinner rolls and 72 apple and pumpkin pies. That’s enough to feed some 400 men, women and children who live at the coalition as well as another 250 homeless people who came to the coalition for a holiday meal.
AP contributed to this article
