My employer has chosen GKTW as its corporate charity. Last year a group of employees trooped over to GKTW, where we spent a Saturday landscaping, painting, decorating, and cleaning the villas.
The villas are very nice. Instead of a hotel, the families stay in two bedroom-two bath cottages, complete with kitchens, living rooms, and televisions.
My group chose to deep clean the villas. We cleaned 4 villas in six hours, vacuuming under furniture, dusting the wainscoting, and scrubbing off the crayon marks on the counters.
While vacuuming behind one of the dressers, I found a flower keychain with an alligator clip. On it was a child’s name, along with her disabilites (enlarged heart, one kidney, mild retardation) and a contact name and number if she got separated from her parents.
I found that so sad.
Basically, GKTW started because one of the Make a Wish groups were unable to co-ordinate a dying child’s wish to visit the Orlando area in time before she died, between the hotels, the rental cars, the airlines, etc. Now, they make one phone call to GKTW, who coordinates everything. If it’s a dire need, they can get everything set up within 24 hours.
It’s a very worthwhile charity.