Following Up After Our Crazy Fundraising Day
Two days after and I’m still sore. We descended on Central Florida last week to see how much money we could raise for an incredible organization, Give Kids The World. Give Kids The World provides cost-free vacations to families with critically ill children. These kids get a great place to stay, free tickets to Disney World and Universal, presents and a virtually unlimited supply of ice cream. Last year we raised over $20,000 to support their mission.
How Did We Do This Year?
This year we set out to break that record, once again by trying to ride every ride at Disney World in one day. Along the way, so many of you stepped up to donate. As of the writing of this story, we’re on pace to break $40,000 in donations.
While the park hours weren’t optimal, we still managed to clock over 17 miles racing across all four parks at Disney World, including a second trip back to the Magic Kingdom at the end of the evening. Our planning was more efficient this year. Last year, we accomplished 38 rides and ended up walking/running 20 miles. This year, we broke that record and clocked in 42 rides. 42 is a new record overall, dating back to prior to COVID-19 when we were able to ride 41 rides in one day.
Want to see all the craziness? You can see all my Instagram stories, labeled as GKTW 2022 at the top of my Instagram account.
And, you can see all my Tweets, including a bunch of very tired pictures on my Twitter feed.
Our day started before 6am as we loaded our supplies and prepared to head out of our hotel. Along the way we had a few lucky breaks (scoring a Slinky Dog Genie pass at the last-minute) and some bad breaks (Under The Sea and Slinky Dog breaking down on us).
As the monorail looped back to Magic Kingdom at 9:30pm we had less than 90 minutes to ride 7 rides and set a new record. Unbelievably, we somehow found the energy to run. Other than the time we spent sitting on rides we ran or speed walked for 90 minutes, making it to our final ride with just a few minutes to spare.
The Final Two Pennies
What a day! I’m so thankful to everyone who donated. We’ll have the fundraising page up for the rest of the week if anyone didn’t get a chance yet. I’m matching the next $500 in donations, so I hope you’ll join us.
Give Kids The World is an incredible organization helping families dealing with circumstances no parent should confront. Amidst those stressful times, the village provides a place for these families to create lasting positive memories. They do so with the support of so many people, including so many of you that helped us raise so much money this week. I’m grateful to everyone who donated. If I missed a chance to thank you personally it wasn’t for lack of trying. We’re already making plans for how to take this challenge to even crazier levels next year.
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