GAD OVER! That went fast!

[Amommy21]

DH was just telling me that GAD is over. They reached 1 million this week.

 

[PrincessYessenia]

It's quite a shame, if you ask me. I personally don't think a million was enough. Mind you, I've already signed up for my volunteering opportunity set for April 9th...but still...one million just wasn't enough considered how many people there are.

 

[Gisele]

Did anybody catch the number on that truck? Seriously, that was rather fast, to say the least.

 

[Sherry E]

I have a hunch they may extend the program, or pick it back up in another month or so, simply because it did end so early in the year and a lot of folks will be left out. I doubt that Disney had any clue so many people would be willing to volunteer to get a ticket, so they assumed it would last all year. I would bet that they are scrambling right now to figure and when and how to reinstate the program, or at least a modified version of it, i.e., opening it back up for another 500,000 people instead of a million or whatever.

 

[iheartdisney]

Personally, I think it is AMAZING that Disney has inspired one MILLION (and that is alot) acts of kindness in just over three months!
Historically, during economic downturrns, there is an equal downturn in charitable giving and activity. Those who gave help are now those who need help. This promotion helped to fill a need. When I dropped off the blankets my family made. the contact person told me they were expecting 7,000 blankets from this promotion, but that would probably be enough to last until only September. There is always a need.
It is kind of sad that the promo ended so soon. I will miss the Muppet commercials!
I can't believe the entitlement attitude though, that people believe that Disney **NEEDS** to do more. Disney does not HAVE to give away anything, ever. The GAD program was promoted from the beginning as a limited program! I think next Black Friday I will tell Best Buy they need to sell more $200 laptops because not everyone who stood in line got one.
I liked this years program ALOT better than last years, when comparing motives. With the "Celebrate" promo, Only the birthday person was entitled, therefore guaranteeing Disney a few extra tickets that day (no one is going to send their child to Disneyland alone, you HAVE to take the whole family) In this promotion, the family works together and then enjoys the day TOGETHER...for free.
So I'm sorry, but I will thank Disney for encouraging volunteerism and encouraging families to spend time together.

 

[Sherry E]

Personally, I think it is AMAZING that Disney has inspired one MILLION (and that is alot) acts of kindness in just over three months!
Historically, during economic downturrns, there is an equal downturn in charitable giving and activity. Those who gave help are now those who need help. This promotion helped to fill a need. When I dropped off the blankets my family made. the contact person told me they were expecting 7,000 blankets from this promotion, but that would probably be enough to last until only September. There is always a need.
It is kind of sad that the promo ended so soon. I will miss the Muppet commercials!
I can't believe the entitlement attitude though, that people believe that Disney **NEEDS** to do more. Disney does not HAVE to give away anything, ever. The GAD program was promoted from the beginning as a limited program! I think next Black Friday I will tell Best Buy they need to sell more $200 laptops because not everyone who stood in line got one.
I liked this years program ALOT better than last years, when comparing motives. With the "Celebrate" promo, Only the birthday person was entitled, therefore guaranteeing Disney a few extra tickets that day (no one is going to send their child to Disneyland alone, you HAVE to take the whole family) In this promotion, the family works together and then enjoys the day TOGETHER...for free.
So I'm sorry, but I will thank Disney for encouraging volunteerism and encouraging families to spend time together.

I don't know about the "entitlement attitude." I don't see it in this thread, but I haven't read all the threads about the GAD thoroughly, so maybe there is a sense of entitlement elsewhere? In any case, I think Disney is probably thrilled beyond all expectations that so many folks were willing to volunteer. I think they probably assumed that it would take all year to get one million volunteers. So, in my opinion, it's not that they "need" to do anything else, of course, but I just think they may extend or reinstate the program based on their history of promos, etc., just to kind of fill out the rest of the year a bit. After all, they extended the Year of a Million Dreams giveaways to two years. It's not that they need to do anything for anyone, but I think they may do it. Yes, it's amazing that Disney inspired one million volunteers - and there were charitable organizations who benefited from that!

 

[Disney Dreams]

Disney helps 1,000s of non-profit organizations in the last 3 months.

Hopefully, they have inspired people to think about volunteering and helping out in the community without expecting a free ticket.

Of course that could just be the former non-profit, volunteer coordinator in me day-dreaming.

- Dreams

 

[darph nader]

I like Iheartdisney's idea about the lap-tops. I'm goin down to my loacl car dealer and have them give me a "Cash for Clunkers" deal,cuz we didn't have the $$ back then. (we don't have the $$ now either,but that's besides the point)

 

[fayt19]

Wow. Glad my family just dropped off our blankets.

 

[todzwife]

Oh bummer! Our family was making blankets for Project Linus. Guess we missed the boat huh?

 

[victorandbellasmom]

Oh bummer! Our family was making blankets for Project Linus. Guess we missed the boat huh?

From my understanding, so long as you are officially signed up through Hands on Network and received a confirmation email, you are already counted as part of the million. As least I hope so. We scheduled our volunteer opportunity over a month ago and it is scheduled for this weekend.

Read the 1st Post in this thread. http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2296674

 

[dmked]

From my understanding, so long as you are officially signed up through Hands on Network and received a confirmation email, you are already counted as part of the million. As least I hope so. We scheduled our volunteer opportunity over a month ago and it is scheduled for this weekend.

Read the 1st Post in this thread. http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2296674

Yes, if you have already signed up and gotten a confirmation email from Disney then you are counted as part of the one million tickets given away.

 

[Leofoenget]

Oh bummer! Our family was making blankets for Project Linus. Guess we missed the boat huh?

Did you sign up but not turn them in yet? If you signed up then you are in. I went in clicked the link to FINISH signing up but it was over. Ugg

 

[dismom73]

Oh bummer! Our family was making blankets for Project Linus. Guess we missed the boat huh?

We are doing project Linus too! We already signed up so the e-mail I got from them said that we are still good. As long as you already signed up you will be ok.

 

[SKWDW]

If you're already signed-up, you should be OK.

From the Give a Day Get a Disney Day Website:
"The overwhelming support we received for the "Give a Day. Get a Disney Day." program has helped us reach our goal of inspiring one million people to volunteer a day of service to their communities. The program has now ended. Although you can no longer register and sign up for volunteer opportunities on this site to earn a free Disney Theme Park ticket, you can still continue to give back to your community by locating and signing up for volunteer opportunities through HandsOn Network. "

 

[tholczer]

I'm thinking they may extend it because there will be tons of volunteers who signed up for the program and then don't complete the service. I may be one of them since in the Los Angeles area, there are no volunteer opportunities left that we can do as a family. Everyone was full up with volunteers. The cool thing, though, is that I was able to write down lots of info about volunteer opportunities for my family for some future time when the program is over and volunteers will still be needed

Disney did a great thing this year.

Tracy

 

[dismom73]

I agree...whoever came up with this promotion for Disney should be very proud. I know when we were making our blankets to donate, I thought.."this is so easy". I'm going to try and do some every few months now that I know how simple and inexpensive it was and how much it will help someone in need.

 

[bumbershoot]

I agree with Sherry; I have a feeling they will start it back up. It's just really not like them to stop something that's going so well, even if it was stated as 1 mil at the beginning.

Just like with their bizarro timing of introducing the Nightastic last year just before APs were blocked, which caused massive crowds and problems, I think this was a misstep too. Someone, without thinking about it, said "ooh, one million sounds good, let's go with that, we'll NEVER get that many in under 100 days!" and others signed off on it. Again, if they'd just ask me, or some other people here on the DL forums, they would have realized that 1 mil split between Anaheim and Orlando was going to go FAST, and then they'd have to think fast for the rest of the year.

I knew, the moment I noticed that it was limited, that we wouldn't be doing it...we're not big on volunteering anyway (though we donate stuff that other families might sell, and we feel that that is a Good Thing), but DS won't turn 6 until last May anyway, and I knew the opportunities would be LONG gone by then. They should have talked to me about how to limit it!

Although it's gone from the DLR page, the link is still right there on the front WDW site...sure, it goes to "we're closed", but the fact that they are keeping it up, instead of making you search for it, tells me something.

 

[closetmickey]

So if someone wouldn't mind clarifying.....My family is signed up to fill and deliver food boxes the first week in April. Will we still receive the tickets since we are signed up, just awaiting the actual date? Thanks!

 

[glendalais]

So if someone wouldn't mind clarifying.....My family is signed up to fill and deliver food boxes the first week in April. Will we still receive the tickets since we are signed up, just awaiting the actual date? Thanks!

Yes, as long as you signed up thru DisneyParks.com before the conclusion of the promotion on 9 March, you'll still receive a complimentary Theme Park ticket upon completion of your volunteer activity.

However, if you were to change your volunteer date or activity with HandsOn Network, you would become ineligible for the ticket.