Got my free ticket for volunteering!!!!

[suzicute20]

We were really lucky and got through on January 1 to sign up to Give a Day. The website was definitely overloaded, so I feel lucky. We signed up for a volunteer opportunity at a local food bank and worked for about four hours on January 2. Got my confirmation of and a link to print my vouchers today!
I thought the experience was really great. Very nice group of people we worked with - there were regular volunteers and two others volunteering through the Give a Day program. I was going to go back in a few weeks, but this place has signed up to have volunteers every day they are open for the next two months and possibly beyond. I'm glad they were able to take advantage of what Disney and Hands on are offering to organizations!
Kudos to Disney for setting up this program. Just another reason why I love Disney!!!
Good luck to everyone else completing a volunteer activity. I hope your experience is as good as ours.

 

[Brumeiser]

on when the tickets have to be used by? Thanks.

 

[TexasRN]

We were really lucky and got through on January 1 to sign up to Give a Day. The website was definitely overloaded, so I feel lucky. We signed up for a volunteer opportunity at a local food bank and worked for about four hours on January 2. Got my confirmation of and a link to print my vouchers today!

Congrats!! That is wonderful. You were fortunate not to have run into any problems with the sign up and follow through. My sister completed her service project (office work)1/3/10 and instead of the organization confirming her service they deleted her from the program. It has been lovely for her. Handsonnetwork not willing to do anything about it-referred back to organization she volunteered with. Someone dropped the ball and no one admits fault.

We hope that our vouchers come as quickly as yours.
1/4/10 Signed up for Linus project
1/5/10 Performed service project
1/6/10 Delivered the blankets
1/7/10 Linus Project Manager emailed Handsonnetwork confirming completion of project-She stated website wouldn't allow her to do that on 1/6/10.

I hope it comes before we leave for WDW!!

Port Orleans 1/17/10-1/24/10!!!

 

[Cheshire Figment]

do the vouchers have a expiration date? on when the tickets have to be used by? Thanks.

The voucher may be exchanged any time up to December 15 with the exception of some block-out dates. If you go to the locked sticky Everything About WDW Tickets in this Forum, especially Post #16, you can get a lot more information. An easy way to get to the sticky is by clicking on the link in my signature.

 

[wisblue]

After the problems getting through to the website, I signed up to play games with residents of an assisted living facility. I got a confirming message telling me that I would hear from the facility within a week to schedule times, but a week has gone by and I haven't heard anything yet. It looks like the tickets will be gone before I get to do anything.

 

[suzicute20]

Wisblue - In my confirming email, there was contact information given for the organization? Did you get any? Maybe you could call or email them?

 

[jheigl]

Congrats for doing this! This truly is a great Disney World promotion. I hope they keep this for a very long time. At times like this, in this economy, these places need all the help they can get, and to have help from volunteers in this sort of volume is incredible.

 

[poohscrew]

Congrats!! That is wonderful. You were fortunate not to have run into any problems with the sign up and follow through. My sister completed her service project (office work)1/3/10 and instead of the organization confirming her service they deleted her from the program. It has been lovely for her. Handsonnetwork not willing to do anything about it-referred back to organization she volunteered with. Someone dropped the ball and no one admits fault.

We hope that our vouchers come as quickly as yours.
1/4/10 Signed up for Linus project
1/5/10 Performed service project
1/6/10 Delivered the blankets
1/7/10 Linus Project Manager emailed Handsonnetwork confirming completion of project-She stated website wouldn't allow her to do that on 1/6/10.

I hope it comes before we leave for WDW!!

I am also doing the Linus project. Our local office said I could mail them or deliver them to them since they are about 1 hour away. What do you mean that the project manager emailed the handsonnetwork confirming the completion of the project and then she stated website wouldn't allow her to do that? Has everything been confirmed for you yet? Thanks for your help!!

Were the blankets easy to make? I have 3 children and it was the only thing I could find that would allow my 7 year old to do. I think this is a great project.

 

[DisneySpaz]

I just signed up for the Project Linus too. My children have made them in the past and they are easy and turn out soooo nice!! It was the only thing that we all 4 could do together. We all 4 will be making them so we can use our ticket in September. Plus, our dog is named Linus and he is named that b/c he always carries around a blanket so it's very fitting that we make blankets!!!

 

[kymom99]

I signed up for Project Linus too. I am not very crafty, but hopefully the blankets will turn out nice!

 

[gerberdaisy1234]

How did you find Project Linus in the list?

 

[headoflife]

This is exactly what I came on the boards to search for. We are on the same schedule as Texas RN. We delivered our blankets 1/6 and got5 confirmation from HON on 1/7 that they had been confirmed. I was hoping we would get the vouchers this week because we leave 1/21. It looks like we should be OK if they stay on about the same schedule.

 

[suzicute20]

This is exactly what I came on the boards to search for. We are on the same schedule as Texas RN. We delivered our blankets 1/6 and got5 confirmation from HON on 1/7 that they had been confirmed. I was hoping we would get the vouchers this week because we leave 1/21. It looks like we should be OK if they stay on about the same schedule.

YAY! Have a great time. Hopefully the weather will be more back to normal by then!

 

[MomOf2DisneyKids]

We signed up for Project Linus too!!

 

[TexasRN]

After the problems getting through to the website, I signed up to play games with residents of an assisted living facility. I got a confirming message telling me that I would hear from the facility within a week to schedule times, but a week has gone by and I haven't heard anything yet. It looks like the tickets will be gone before I get to do anything.

Definitely call the organization. These organizations are now overwhelmed with hundreds of emails, and it is taking them awhile to reply. I didn't wait to be contacted; I called them. I originally was going to volunteer at The San Antonio Children's Museum. I emailed like I was told. But the contact info(email and phone) didn't look right. The contact info was wrong. I called the museum directly with the correct phone number and spoke with the volunteer coordinator. She knew nothing about the GAD program and is not participating in it. This organization is still listed on the website even after I reported this to the Handsonnetwork.

 

[TexasRN]

I am also doing the Linus project. Our local office said I could mail them or deliver them to them since they are about 1 hour away. What do you mean that the project manager emailed the handsonnetwork confirming the completion of the project and then she stated website wouldn't allow her to do that? Has everything been confirmed for you yet? Thanks for your help!!

Were the blankets easy to make? I have 3 children and it was the only thing I could find that would allow my 7 year old to do. I think this is a great project.

The blankets were easy to make and it allowed the whole family to participate. I don't know why the website would not let the project manager confirm completion of service on the day of service. It stated not "due". She said she would email them the next day. I got an email from handsonnetwork saying "Thanks for Volunteering" on 1/7 (day after delivery of blankets). This is just a generic letter basically stating your time has passing and you should have volunteered and now you wait for verification. On the website of WDW- Manage Account. It lists the Linus project Volunteer Activity Status : Verification Pending; Action to be taken: NONE. So we wait.

 

[nicki.momof3]

I also like most aspects of the program but I hate the black out dates. We are going 3/31-4/8. Black out dates are 3/29-4/8.

Why a blackout date?

 

[suzicute20]

It looked like for WDW, the black out dates were Spring Break and Fourth of July. These days are already so crowded, they probably did not want to make them even worse. Bummer that they coincide with your trip dates.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

Because that is the week most elementary and middle schools have Easter Vacation and is the second-most crowded week of the year. Disney does not try to attract people that week with free tickets or reduced resort prices.

Don't forget, Disney is a profit-making company and it would not make economic sense to give away money that week.

 

[macraven]

This is exactly what I came on the boards to search for. We are on the same schedule as Texas RN. We delivered our blankets 1/6 and got5 confirmation from HON on 1/7 that they had been confirmed. I was hoping we would get the vouchers this week because we leave 1/21. It looks like we should be OK if they stay on about the same schedule.

i did the volunteer program also.
in my email i received, it said it would take about 2 weeks once the paper work was sent in for me to receive the ticket voucher.